🔗 Share this article

What can you improve a outstanding experienced squad that have secured consecutive titles, including a double triumph with thirty wins from 32 matches?

Recruit a collection of former pro players who have played at the highest tier of club and global soccer as you pursue more honors.

One Manchester team boasts an non-professional veterans team with nine former top-flight players in their present squad.

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

Wythenshawe Veterans Over-35s are based in south Manchester and compete in the Cheshire-based Vets League Top Division.

Their squad list this season features 9 ex- Premier League footballers, with a total nearly 1,800 Premier League appearances.

The elite roster also includes 222 Premier League scores and over 320 international appearances.

They feature one forward, who netted 37 scores in over 100 appearances for his former club after joining them for £9m from German league side Freiburg in 2012.

He made his first appearance for Wythenshawe in their last home match versus defending title holders their rivals and netted every one of the six goals in a 6-2 victory - featuring a 32-minute opening period triple.

The roster for this season also includes former professionals such as England and Anfield striker Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley FC winger George Boyd, Toffees forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan full-back Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight championship winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

In total, the former top-flight footballers have won fifteen major honors and transferred for combined transfer fees of approximately £123m.

Famous Figures and Global Stars

Stephen Ireland started playing for the side during preseason this season through close friend and present team teammate Blake Norton, and the ex- Irish player then invited other former professionals, who all compete in a midweek nine-a-side game, to join in.

Ex- Senegalese forward Niasse, who scored 12 goals in sixty-five top-flight games for Everton and still goes to their matches at Goodison Park, also made his first appearance versus the opposition - who are based in the city and wear an Blue training kit as their strip.

"My mate Stephen Ireland said 'come and play, it's good fun'," commented the striker.

"Then he told me we were playing a team from Liverpool and the surprise I had when I noticed them sporting Everton shirts - I say this is strange for me!

"When you still enjoy football and you know you can still do it, wherever you can kick a ball, what are you going to do?

"Those fans who turn up and see are happy and to give someone's moment if they see us competing there and to ask us queries - it's more like the pleasure of us having somewhere we can enjoy football, with organisation of course."

Such is the strength in depth at Wythenshawe, he had his first game at defender.

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

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

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

Unreal Feeling

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

Wythenshawe are top of the Premier Division with 3 wins from 3 and a goal difference of +19.

One opponent, thirty-eight, who features on the wing for Collegiate OB, faced former Latics defender Figueroa on Sunday - and had to tell his young boy who Heskey was.

He has appeared at 2 World Cups for Honduras, in as well as featuring in over 200 Premier League matches.

"The news was going round like wildfire they had these ex-Premier League stars," said Barrow.

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

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

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

"We literally have not stopped chatting about it - I was phoning my mum and brother on the way home.

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

"Now we can't wait for the second match."

'We'll Still Win the League'

The manager coaches the Collegiate vets side, who secured the Top Division championship last season, together with his co-manager.

"Our team went one-nil ahead and had a