🔗 Share this article

How can you boost a excellent veteran side who have claimed back-to-back titles, featuring a double triumph with thirty wins from 32 games?

Sign a collection of former pro players that have performed at the highest level of club and international football as you aim for more honors.

A Manchester side fields an amateur vets squad with nine ex- Premier League players in their present squad.

Two Hundred Twenty-Two Premier League Scores, Three Hundred Twenty-Five Global Appearances

Wythenshawe Vets Over-35s are located in south the city and play in the Cheshire-based Veterans League Premier Tier.

The squad list this campaign includes nine ex- top-flight footballers, with a total over 1,800 top-flight games.

The high-profile roster also contains 222 Premier League scores and 325 international caps.

The squad feature one forward, who netted thirty-seven scores in 117 appearances for his former club after joining them for nine million pounds from Bundesliga side SC Freiburg in 2012.

He made his first appearance for the team in their last home-field match versus reigning champions their rivals and netted all six scores in a six-two win - featuring a half-hour first-half triple.

The roster for this season also features ex- pros such as England and Anfield forward Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley midfielder George Boyd, Everton forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic full-back Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight championship winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

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

Well-Known Names and International Players

Ireland began turning out for the side in preseason this summer through close friend and current Wythenshawe player Blake Norton, and the ex- Republic of Ireland player then asked other ex-pros, who all play in a midweek nine-a-side match, to participate.

Former Senegalese striker Niasse, who netted 12 goals in sixty-five top-flight games for the Toffees and still attends their home games, also had his first appearance versus the opposition - who are located in the city and use an Everton warm-up gear as their uniform.

"My mate Stephen Ireland told me 'come and play, it's a laugh'," commented Niasse.

"After that he told me we were facing a side from the city and the surprise I had when I saw them sporting Everton kits - I thought this is wrong for me!

"If you still enjoy football and you feel you can still do it, wherever you can kick a ball, what are you going to do?

"Those people who come and watch are happy and to make someone's moment if they watch us competing there and to pose us questions - it's really about the pleasure of us getting a place we can play, with structure of course."

So great is the squad depth at Wythenshawe, he made his first game at defender.

"It's a bit unusual but then, I love running and just move forward - I'm not defending that much," he said.

"I tell my centre-back 'I'm not hanging back' and that I'm just going to continue running.

"The movement is what I'm after. It's enjoyable."

Dreamlike' Scenario

Along with Cisse's six scores on debut, Stephen Ireland has netted 8 in 3 appearances for the side, while George Boyd scored 5 on his first match and Joleon Lescott, a centre-half by trade, notched a triple in one match as a striker.

Wythenshawe are top of the Premier Division with three victories from 3 and a GD of +19.

Paul Barrow, thirty-eight, who plays on the flank for Collegiate OB, came up against former Wigan defender Figueroa on Sunday - and had to tell his young boy who Heskey was.

He has played at 2 global tournaments for Honduras, in as well as playing in more than 200 top-flight matches.

"The news was spreading like a rumor they had all these ex-Premier League players," remarked the player.

"I felt I was a little awestruck playing against him to be honest.

"Even Heskey came on and he's has 60-odd English caps.

"We held our own for a solid twenty minutes but then we had a man dismissed and it was hard.

"Our group really have not ceased chatting about it - I was calling my mum and sibling on the way home.

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

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

'We'll Still Take the League'

The manager manages the opposition vets team, who won the Premier Division title the previous campaign, along with his co-manager.

"Our team went 1-0 up and had a