🔗 Share this article

How can you boost a outstanding experienced team that have secured consecutive championships, featuring a double triumph boasting 30 wins from thirty-two games?

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

One Manchester club fields an amateur veterans team with 9 former Premier League footballers in their current lineup.

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

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

Their roster this season includes nine former Premier League footballers, with a combined 1,801 top-flight games.

This high-profile squad also includes over 220 Premier League goals and 325 global appearances.

They include one forward, who notched 37 scores in 117 games for his former club after signing for them for nine million pounds from Bundesliga side Freiburg in January 2012.

He made his debut for the team in their most recent home match versus defending title holders Collegiate Old Boys and scored every one of the six scores in a 6-2 victory - featuring a half-hour first-half triple.

Wythenshawe's roster for this season also features former pros such as English and Anfield forward Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley FC midfielder George Boyd, Everton striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic defender Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League championship victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

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

Famous Names and Global Stars

Stephen Ireland started turning out for the side in pre-season this summer through close mate and present team teammate Blake Norton, and the ex- Irish player then asked other former professionals, who all play in a midweek nine-a-side game, to join in.

Ex- Senegalese forward Oumar Niasse, who netted 12 goals in sixty-five top-flight games for Everton and still attends their home games, also made his first appearance against the opposition - who are located in the city and wear an Everton training kit as their strip.

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

"Then he told me we were facing a side from Liverpool and the shock I had when I noticed them sporting Everton kits - I thought this is wrong for me!

"If you still love football and you know you can still do it, wherever you can kick a ball, what are you going to choose?

"The spectators who come and watch are pleased and to give someone's moment if they see us competing there and to ask us queries - it's really about the pleasure of us getting somewhere we can play, with organisation of course."

So great is the strength in depth at Wythenshawe, Niasse made his first game at defender.

"That's a bit unusual but then, I enjoy sprinting and just go forward - I'm not staying back that much," he said.

"I warn my centre-back 'I'm not staying' and that I'm just going to keep running.

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

Unreal Feeling

Along with Cisse's 6 scores on debut, Stephen Ireland has scored 8 in 3 appearances for the side, while George Boyd hit five on his first match and Joleon Lescott, a defender by position, notched a triple in one match up front.

Wythenshawe are top of the Premier Tier with three victories from three and a goal difference of plus nineteen.

Paul Barrow, 38, who plays on the wing for Collegiate OB, came up against ex- Wigan defender Maynor Figueroa on the weekend - and had to explain his nine-year-old son who Emile Heskey was.

Figueroa has appeared at two World Cups for Honduras, in as well as playing in more than 200 Premier League games.

"It was spreading like wildfire they had these ex-Premier League players," remarked the player.

"I felt I was a bit starstruck playing against Figueroa to be honest.

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

"Our side competed well for a good 20 minutes but then we had a player sent off and it was tough.

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

"They were all friendly, shaking our hands after the game - it was like facing a group of normal guys.

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

We Will Still Win the Title'

Andy Kirby coaches the opposition vets side, who secured the Top Division title the previous campaign, together with Paul Maguire.

"We went 1-0 ahead and had a