🔗 Share this article

How do you improve a stellar veteran squad who have won consecutive titles, including a double triumph boasting thirty victories from 32 games?

Recruit a raft of former pro players that have performed at the top tier of club and global soccer as you pursue additional trophies.

A Greater Manchester team fields an non-professional vets squad with nine former top-flight footballers in their active squad.

Two Hundred Twenty-Two Premier League Goals, 325 Global Caps

The team Veterans Over 35s are situated in south Manchester and play in the Cheshire Veterans Division Premier Tier.

Their roster this season features 9 former top-flight players, with a collective over 1,800 top-flight matches.

The high-profile roster also contains 222 top division goals and over 320 global caps.

The squad include one forward, who notched thirty-seven goals in over 100 appearances for Newcastle United after joining them for £9m from German league side SC Freiburg in January 2012.

He had his debut for the team in their most recent home match versus defending title holders Collegiate Old Boys and netted every one of the six scores in a six-two win - including a half-hour opening period triple.

The squad for this season also includes former professionals such as English and Anfield striker Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley winger George Boyd, Toffees striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan full-back Maynor Figueroa, City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight title victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

Collectively, the ex- Premier League footballers have claimed 15 significant honors and moved for combined transfer fees of approximately £123 million.

Famous Names and International Players

Stephen Ireland started turning out for the side in pre-season this summer through close friend and present Wythenshawe player Blake Norton, and the former Irish player then asked other former professionals, who all compete in a midweek small-sided match, to participate.

Ex- Senegalese striker Oumar Niasse, who netted 12 scores in sixty-five top-flight games for Everton and even now attends their home games, also had his first appearance against the opposition - who are located in Liverpool and wear an Everton training kit as their uniform.

"A friend Stephen Ireland told me 'come and play, it's good fun'," said Niasse.

"After that he told me we were facing a side from Liverpool and the surprise I had when I noticed them sporting Blue kits - I thought this is strange for me!

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

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

So great is the bench strength at the club, Niasse had his first game at full-back.

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

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

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

Unreal Experience

Along with Cisse's 6 goals on his first game, Stephen Ireland has scored 8 in three appearances for Wythenshawe, while George Boyd hit five on his debut appearance and Lescott, a defender by position, scored a hat-trick in one game as a striker.

The team are top of the Top Tier with three victories from three and a goal difference of +19.

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

He has appeared at two World Cups for Honduras, in as well as playing in over two hundred top-flight games.

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

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

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

"Our side held our own for a solid 20 minutes but then we had a man dismissed and it was hard.

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

"The opponents were all dead sound, shaking our hands after the match - it was like playing a group of regular guys.

"Now we are eager for the second match."

We Will Still Take the League'

The manager coaches the Collegiate vets side, who secured the Premier Division title the previous campaign, together with his co-manager.

"Our team scored 1-0 up and had a