🔗 Share this article

What do you boost a stellar veteran squad that have secured consecutive championships, featuring a league-cup double with thirty wins from 32 matches?

Sign a collection of ex- professionals that have performed at the top level of club football and international football as you target additional honors.

One Greater Manchester club has an amateur vets squad with nine ex- Premier League footballers in their current lineup.

222 Top Division Goals, Three Hundred Twenty-Five Global Appearances

Wythenshawe Vets Over-35s are located in south Manchester and play in the Cheshire-based Veterans Division Top Tier.

The roster this campaign boasts nine former Premier League players, with a total over 1,800 elite games.

The high-profile squad also contains 222 top division scores and over 320 global caps.

The squad include one forward, who notched 37 scores in over 100 appearances for his former club after signing for them for £9m from Bundesliga side Freiburg in January 2012.

He had his debut for Wythenshawe in their most recent home match versus defending champions their rivals and netted every one of the six scores in a six-two win - featuring a half-hour first-half triple.

Wythenshawe's team for this season also features ex- pros such as English and Anfield forward Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley midfielder George Boyd, Toffees forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic defender Maynor Figueroa, City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight championship winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

In total, the former top-flight footballers have won 15 big honors and moved for combined transfer fees of about £123 million.

Famous Names and Global Stars

Ireland started playing for the side during pre-season this summer through good mate and current Wythenshawe player Blake Norton, and the former Irish player then invited additional ex-pros, who all play in a midweek small-sided game, to participate.

Former Senegal striker Niasse, who netted 12 goals in sixty-five top-flight matches for the Toffees and still goes to their home games, also had his first appearance against Collegiate OB - who are based in the city and use an Everton warm-up gear as their strip.

"A mate Stephen told me 'join and play, it's good fun'," commented Niasse.

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

"When you still love football and you feel you can still play, wherever you can kick a ball, what are you going to choose?

"The spectators who come and see are happy and to give someone's moment if they watch us competing there and to ask us questions - it's more like the pleasure of us getting somewhere we can enjoy football, with organisation of course."

Such 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 go inside - I'm not staying back that much," he added.

"I tell my defender 'I'm not hanging back' 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 Cisse's six goals on his first game, Ireland has netted 8 in three games for Wythenshawe, while George Boyd scored 5 on his debut appearance and Lescott, a centre-half by position, scored a triple in one game as a striker.

Wythenshawe are leading of the Premier Tier with 3 wins from 3 and a goal difference of plus nineteen.

One opponent, thirty-eight, who plays on the wing for the opposition, faced former Wigan full-back Maynor Figueroa on the weekend - and had to tell his young boy who Emile Heskey was.

He has appeared at two global tournaments for Honduras, in addition to playing in more than 200 Premier League matches.

"It was going round like wildfire they had these former top-flight players," said Barrow.

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

"Also Emile [Heskey] came on and he's has 60-odd English appearances.

"We held our own for a good 20 mins but then we had a player dismissed and it was hard.

"We really have not ceased talking about it - I was phoning my mum and sibling on the journey home.

"They were all friendly, shaking our hands after the game - it was like playing a bunch of normal fellas.

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

We Will Still Win the League'

Andy Kirby manages the opposition vets side, who won the Top Division title last season, along with Paul Maguire.

"We scored 1-0 up and had a