🔗 Share this article

What can you improve a stellar experienced side that have won back-to-back championships, including a league-cup double boasting thirty wins from thirty-two matches?

Bring in a group of former pro players that have performed at the elite level of club and international soccer as you target more trophies.

A Manchester side has an amateur vets team with nine former Premier League footballers in their current squad.

222 Top Division Scores, Three Hundred Twenty-Five Global Caps

Wythenshawe Vets Over-35s are based in southern the city and compete in the Cheshire-based Vets Division Premier Division.

The squad list this campaign includes nine former top-flight players, with a total over 1,800 top-flight matches.

This elite roster also boasts 222 Premier League scores and over 320 international caps.

The squad include one forward, who netted 37 goals in over 100 games for his former club after joining them for nine million pounds from German league club SC Freiburg in January 2012.

He had his first appearance for the team in their most recent home-field game against reigning title holders Collegiate Old Boys and netted every one of the six scores in a 6-2 victory - featuring a half-hour opening period triple.

Wythenshawe's roster for this season also includes ex- professionals such as English and Liverpool striker Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley winger George Boyd, Everton forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic full-back Maynor Figueroa, City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight title winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

In total, the former top-flight players have claimed 15 major honors and moved for combined transfer sums of around £123 million.

Famous Figures and International Players

Ireland started playing for the side during preseason this summer through good friend and present team teammate Blake Norton, and the ex- Irish midfielder then invited additional former professionals, who all play in a weekly small-sided game, to participate.

Former Senegal striker Niasse, who netted twelve scores in sixty-five top-flight games for Everton and even now attends their home games, also made his debut versus Collegiate OB - who are based in the city and wear an Everton warm-up gear as their uniform.

"My mate Stephen told me 'come and play, it's enjoyable'," commented the striker.

"After that he told me we were playing a team from Liverpool and the surprise I had when I saw them wearing Blue shirts - I thought this is strange for me!

"When you still love the game and you feel you can still do it, wherever you can play, what are you going to choose?

"The people who turn up and see are pleased and to give someone's day if they see us competing there and to pose us queries - it's really about the joy of us getting a place we can enjoy football, with structure of course."

So great is the strength in depth at Wythenshawe, Niasse made his first game at full-back.

"It's a bit unusual but then, I love sprinting and just move inside - I'm not staying back that much," he added.

"I warn my defender 'I'm not hanging back' and that I'm just going to continue attacking.

"That running is what I'm seeking. It's good fun."

Dreamlike' Scenario

In addition to the forward's six scores on debut, Stephen Ireland has scored 8 in three games for Wythenshawe, while Boyd hit 5 on his debut appearance and Lescott, a centre-half by position, scored a hat-trick in one game as a striker.

The team are top of the Top Division with three wins from three and a GD of +19.

Paul Barrow, 38, who plays on the flank for Collegiate OB, faced former Wigan full-back Figueroa on the weekend - and had to explain his nine-year-old son who Heskey was.

He has played at two global tournaments for Honduras, in as well as playing in more than 200 top-flight matches.

"The news was spreading like wildfire they had all these ex-Premier League stars," said the player.

"I think I was a bit starstruck playing against Figueroa to be honest.

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

"We competed well for a good 20 minutes but then we had a player dismissed and it was hard.

"Our group really haven't stopped talking about it - I was phoning my mum and brother on the way home.

"They were all really nice, shaking our hands after the match - it was like facing a bunch of normal guys.

"Now we are eager for the second fixture."

We Will Still Win the Title'

The manager coaches the opposition veterans team, who won the Premier Tier championship last season, together with Paul Maguire.

"We scored one-nil ahead and had a