🔗 Share this article

How do you improve a stellar veteran team who have claimed back-to-back championships, featuring a double triumph with thirty wins from thirty-two games?

Sign a collection of ex- professionals that have performed at the elite tier of club and global football as you pursue additional honors.

One Greater Manchester team has an non-professional veterans squad with 9 ex- Premier League footballers in their current roster.

Two Hundred Twenty-Two Top Division Goals, 325 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 season includes nine former Premier League players, with a total nearly 1,800 Premier League matches.

The elite squad also includes 222 Premier League goals and over 320 international caps.

They feature one forward, who notched thirty-seven goals in 117 appearances for Newcastle United after signing for them for £9m from German league club Freiburg in January 2012.

He made his first appearance for Wythenshawe in their most recent home-field game versus reigning champions Collegiate Old Boys and netted all six goals in a six-two win - including a 32-minute first-half hat-trick.

Wythenshawe's squad for this season also features ex- pros such as England and Anfield forward Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley winger George Boyd, Toffees forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic full-back Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League championship victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

In total, the former top-flight footballers have secured fifteen big trophies and moved for combined transfer sums of about £123m.

Well-Known Figures and Global Stars

Ireland started playing for the side in preseason this season through good friend and current Wythenshawe player Blake Norton, and the former Republic of Ireland midfielder then invited additional ex-pros, who all compete in a weekly small-sided match, to participate.

Ex- Senegalese striker Oumar Niasse, who netted twelve scores in 65 Premier League matches for the Toffees and even now goes to their matches at Goodison Park, also made his debut against the opposition - who are based in Liverpool and wear an Everton training kit as their uniform.

"A friend Stephen said 'come and play, it's good fun'," commented the striker.

"After that he informed me we were playing a team from the city and the shock I had when I noticed them wearing Blue shirts - I thought this is strange for me!

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

"Those fans who come and watch are pleased and to give someone's moment if they see us playing there and to pose 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, Niasse had his first game at defender.

"It's a little different but then, I enjoy sprinting and just go forward - I'm not defending that much," he said.

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

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

Unreal Experience

Along with the forward's 6 goals on his first game, Ireland has scored eight in 3 appearances for Wythenshawe, while George Boyd hit five on his debut appearance and Joleon Lescott, a defender by position, notched a hat-trick in one game as a striker.

The team are top of the Premier Division with three victories from three and a GD of plus nineteen.

Paul Barrow, 38, who plays on the wing for Collegiate OB, faced ex- Latics defender Maynor Figueroa on the weekend - and had to tell his nine-year-old son who Emile Heskey was.

He has appeared at 2 World Cups for his country, in as well as featuring in over two hundred Premier League matches.

"The news was going round like wildfire they had these former top-flight players," said the player.

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

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

"Our side held our own for a good twenty mins but then we had a man sent off and it was hard.

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

"The opponents were all dead sound, shaking our hands after the game - it was like playing a bunch of regular fellas.

"Now we are eager for the return fixture."

We Will Still Win the Title'

The manager manages the Collegiate veterans team, who secured the Premier Tier title last season, along with his co-manager.

"Our team scored 1-0 up and had a