🔗 Share this article

What do you boost a excellent experienced squad who have claimed back-to-back titles, including a league-cup double with 30 wins from thirty-two games?

Recruit a raft of former pro players who have performed at the top level of club football and international football as you pursue additional trophies.

A Greater Manchester club fields an non-professional veterans squad with 9 ex- top-flight footballers in their present roster.

222 Premier League Goals, Three Hundred Twenty-Five Global Caps

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

The lineup this campaign features nine former top-flight footballers, with a combined 1,801 elite matches.

This star-studded squad also contains over 220 Premier League scores and 325 global appearances.

They feature one forward, who netted 37 scores in over 100 games for Newcastle United after joining them for nine million pounds from German league club SC Freiburg in January 2012.

He had his debut for Wythenshawe in their most recent home-field game versus reigning title holders Collegiate Old Boys and scored every one of the six goals in a six-two win - featuring a 32-minute first-half hat-trick.

Wythenshawe's squad for this campaign also includes former professionals such as English and Liverpool striker Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley winger George Boyd, Toffees forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic defender Maynor Figueroa, City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight title winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

In total, the former Premier League footballers have secured 15 big honors and moved for total transfer fees of around £123 million.

Famous Names and Global Players

Stephen Ireland began turning out for the team in preseason this season through good friend and current Wythenshawe teammate Blake Norton, and the ex- Republic of Ireland player then invited additional former professionals, who all compete in a midweek small-sided game, to participate.

Ex- Senegalese forward Niasse, who scored 12 scores in 65 Premier League games for Everton and even now attends their home games, also had his debut versus the opposition - who are located in the city and wear an Everton warm-up gear as their strip.

"A friend Stephen Ireland said 'join and play, it's enjoyable'," commented the striker.

"Then he told me we were playing a team from the city and the shock I had when I noticed them wearing Blue shirts - I say this is strange for me!

"If you still love the game and you know you can still do it, wherever you can play, what are you going to do?

"The spectators who come and see are pleased and to give a day if they watch us competing there and to ask us questions - it's more like the pleasure of us getting a place we can play, with organisation of course."

So great is the squad depth at Wythenshawe, he had his debut at defender.

"That's a little different but then, I enjoy sprinting and just go inside - I'm not staying back that much," he added.

"I tell my defender 'I'm not staying' and that I'm just going to continue running.

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

Unreal Scenario

Along with Cisse's 6 scores on debut, Stephen Ireland has netted eight in three games for Wythenshawe, while George Boyd scored five on his debut match and Joleon Lescott, a centre-half by position, scored a triple in one match up front.

The team are leading of the Top Division with 3 victories from three and a goal difference of +19.

Paul Barrow, thirty-eight, who plays on the wing for the opposition, faced former Latics defender Figueroa on Sunday - and had to explain his young son who Heskey was.

Figueroa has played at two World Cups for his country, in addition to playing in more than 200 Premier League games.

"The news was spreading like wildfire they had all these former top-flight players," remarked the player.

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

"Also Emile [Heskey] got on and he's got over 60 English caps.

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

"Our group really haven't ceased chatting about it - I was phoning my mother and sibling on the way home.

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

"Now we are eager for the return fixture."

We Will Still Win the Title'

Andy Kirby manages the opposition vets team, who secured the Premier Division title the previous campaign, along with Paul Maguire.

"Our team went one-nil up and had a