🔗 Share this article

What do you boost a excellent veteran squad that have won back-to-back championships, featuring a league-cup double boasting thirty victories from thirty-two matches?

Recruit a raft of ex- professionals who have competed at the top level of club and international soccer as you aim for additional silverware.

A Manchester side fields an non-professional vets squad with 9 ex- Premier League footballers in their current squad.

Two Hundred Twenty-Two Top Division Goals, Three Hundred Twenty-Five Global Caps

The team Veterans Over-35s are located in southern the city and play in the Cheshire-based Veterans Division Top Tier.

Their squad list this season includes nine former top-flight footballers, with a total nearly 1,800 Premier League appearances.

This elite team also contains 222 Premier League goals and 325 global appearances.

The squad feature one forward, who notched thirty-seven goals in over 100 appearances for his former club after signing for them for nine million pounds from German league club Freiburg in January 2012.

He made his debut for Wythenshawe in their most recent home-field match versus reigning title holders Collegiate Old Boys and scored every one of the six goals in a six-two victory - featuring a 32-minute opening period hat-trick.

Wythenshawe's squad for this campaign also includes former pros such as England and Liverpool striker Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley FC midfielder George Boyd, Everton forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic defender Maynor Figueroa, City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League championship victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

In total, the ex- Premier League players have claimed fifteen major honors and transferred for total transfer sums of around £123 million.

Household Names and International Stars

Ireland started turning out for the team during pre-season this summer through good mate and current team player Blake Norton, and the ex- Republic of Ireland player then asked additional former professionals, who all compete in a midweek small-sided match, to participate.

Former Senegal forward Oumar Niasse, who netted twelve goals in 65 Premier League games for Everton and even now attends their matches at Goodison Park, also had his first appearance against the opposition - who are located in the city and use an Everton training kit as their strip.

"My friend Stephen Ireland said 'join and play, it's good fun'," commented the striker.

"After that he informed me we were facing a team from Liverpool and the shock I had when I saw them wearing Blue shirts - I say this is wrong for me!

"When you still love the game and you know you can still do it, anywhere you can kick a ball, what are you going to do?

"The spectators who turn up and watch are pleased and to give a moment if they see us playing there and to pose us questions - it's really about the pleasure of us getting somewhere we can play, with structure of course."

So great is the bench strength at the club, he made his debut at full-back.

"That's a bit unusual but then, I love sprinting and just go inside - I'm not defending that much," he added.

"I warn my centre-back 'I'm not staying' and that I'm just going to continue attacking.

"That movement is what I'm after. It's good fun."

Unreal Scenario

In addition to the forward's six scores on his first game, Stephen Ireland has netted 8 in three appearances for Wythenshawe, while Boyd hit five on his debut match and Joleon Lescott, a defender by trade, notched a hat-trick in one game up front.

Wythenshawe are top of the Top Tier with three victories from three and a GD of plus nineteen.

Paul Barrow, thirty-eight, who plays on the wing for the opposition, came up against ex- Wigan full-back Figueroa on Sunday - and had to explain his nine-year-old son who Heskey was.

He has appeared at 2 World Cups for his country, in as well as playing in over 200 Premier League matches.

"It was going round like wildfire they had all these ex-Premier League stars," remarked the player.

"I felt I was a bit starstruck facing Figueroa to be honest.

"Also Heskey came on and he's got over 60 English appearances.

"We held our own for a good twenty mins but then we had a player sent off and it was tough.

"We literally haven't ceased chatting about it - I was calling my mother and sibling on the way home.

"The opponents were all friendly, shaking our hands after the match - it was like facing a group of normal fellas.

"Now we can't wait for the second match."

We Will Still Win the League'

Andy Kirby coaches the Collegiate veterans team, who won the Premier Division title last season, together with his co-manager.

"Our team went one-nil up and had a