🔗 Share this article

What can you improve a outstanding experienced team who have claimed consecutive titles, including a league-cup double boasting 30 victories from 32 games?

Recruit a collection of ex- pro players that have competed at the elite tier of club football and global football as you aim for more silverware.

A Greater Manchester side boasts an amateur veterans team with 9 former top-flight footballers in their current lineup.

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

Wythenshawe Vets Over-35s are situated in south Manchester and compete in the Cheshire Vets Division Premier Tier.

Their lineup this season boasts 9 former Premier League footballers, with a collective 1,801 Premier League matches.

The star-studded squad also contains 222 top division goals and over 320 global appearances.

They include one forward, who scored thirty-seven goals in 117 games for Newcastle United after moving to them for nine million pounds from Bundesliga club SC Freiburg in January 2012.

He made his debut for Wythenshawe in their last home-field game against defending title holders Collegiate Old Boys and scored every one of the six scores in a six-two victory - featuring a half-hour opening period triple.

Wythenshawe's team for this campaign also features former pros such as England and Anfield striker Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley FC midfielder George Boyd, Toffees striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan defender Maynor Figueroa, City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight title winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

In total, the ex- Premier League players have secured 15 big trophies and transferred for total transfer sums of about £123 million.

Well-Known Names and International Stars

Ireland began turning out for the team in preseason this season through close friend and current team teammate Blake Norton, and the ex- Republic of Ireland midfielder then invited other ex-pros, who all play in a midweek nine-a-side game, to join in.

Ex- Senegal striker Niasse, who scored 12 goals in 65 top-flight games for the Toffees and even now attends their matches at Goodison Park, also made his first appearance against the opposition - who are located in Liverpool and use an Blue warm-up gear as their uniform.

"A friend Stephen Ireland told me 'join and have a game, it's good fun'," said Niasse.

"After that he informed me we were playing a side from the city and the surprise I had when I saw them wearing Blue kits - I say this is strange for me!

"When you still love football and you know you can still do it, wherever you can play, what are you going to do?

"Those spectators who come and watch are happy and to make a moment if they see us competing there and to pose us questions - it's more like the joy of us getting a place we can play, with structure of course."

Such is the strength in depth at the club, Niasse made his first game at full-back.

"That'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.

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

Dreamlike' Feeling

In addition to Cisse's six goals on his first game, Stephen Ireland has scored eight in 3 games for Wythenshawe, while George Boyd hit five on his first match and Joleon Lescott, a centre-half by trade, notched a triple in one match up front.

The team are leading of the Premier Tier with 3 victories from 3 and a GD of plus nineteen.

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

Figueroa has appeared at 2 global tournaments for Honduras, in addition to featuring in more than 200 Premier League matches.

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

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

"Also Heskey got on and he's has 60-odd England appearances.

"Our side competed well for a solid 20 mins but then we had a man dismissed and it was tough.

"We really haven't stopped chatting about it - I was phoning my mother and brother on the way home.

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

"Now we are eager for the return fixture."

'We'll Still Take the Title'

Andy Kirby manages the Collegiate veterans side, who secured the Top Tier title the previous campaign, along with Paul Maguire.

"Our team scored one-nil ahead and had a