🔗 Share this article

How do you boost a stellar experienced side who have claimed consecutive championships, featuring a double triumph boasting thirty wins from thirty-two matches?

Bring in a collection of former professionals that have played at the elite level of club football and global football as you pursue more silverware.

One Greater Manchester team fields an amateur vets squad with nine former top-flight players in their active roster.

222 Premier League Scores, Three Hundred Twenty-Five International Caps

Wythenshawe Vets Over-35s are located in southern Manchester and play in the Cheshire Veterans League Top Division.

The squad list this season boasts nine former Premier League players, with a combined over 1,800 Premier League matches.

The star-studded squad also contains 222 Premier League goals and 325 international appearances.

They include one forward, who notched thirty-seven scores in over 100 games for Newcastle United after joining them for nine million pounds from German league club Freiburg in January 2012.

He had his first appearance for Wythenshawe in their last home-field game versus defending title holders their rivals and scored all six scores in a six-two victory - featuring a half-hour opening period triple.

The roster for this campaign also includes ex- pros such as England and Liverpool forward Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley winger George Boyd, Everton striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic full-back Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League title victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

Together, the former Premier League players have secured fifteen big trophies and transferred for total transfer fees of around £123 million.

Household Figures and International Stars

Ireland began turning out for the team in preseason this summer through good friend and present team teammate Blake Norton, and the ex- Irish midfielder then invited other ex-pros, who all compete in a weekly nine-a-side game, to participate.

Former Senegalese forward Niasse, who netted 12 scores in sixty-five top-flight games for the Toffees and still goes to their home games, also made his first appearance against the opposition - who are based in the city and use an Everton warm-up gear as their strip.

"My mate Stephen told me 'join and play, it's good fun'," commented Niasse.

"After that he informed me we were playing a team from Liverpool and the surprise I had when I saw them wearing Everton kits - I say this is wrong for me!

"When you still enjoy the game and you know you can still play, anywhere you can play, what are you going to choose?

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

Such is the squad depth at the club, he had his debut at defender.

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

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

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

Dreamlike' Scenario

Along with the forward's six goals on debut, Ireland has netted 8 in three games for the side, while George Boyd scored 5 on his first match and Lescott, a centre-half by position, notched a triple in one game as a striker.

The team are top of the Top Tier with three victories from 3 and a GD of plus nineteen.

One opponent, thirty-eight, who features on the flank for Collegiate OB, faced ex- Wigan full-back Maynor Figueroa on Sunday - and had to explain his nine-year-old boy who Heskey was.

Figueroa has appeared at 2 global tournaments for his country, in addition to featuring in over two hundred Premier League matches.

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

"I think I was a bit starstruck playing against him to be honest.

"Even Heskey got on and he's has 60-odd English appearances.

"We held our own for a good twenty mins but then we had a player dismissed and it was hard.

"Our group really have not stopped talking about it - I was phoning my mum and sibling on the way home.

"They were all really nice, shaking our hands after the game - it was like facing a bunch of regular guys.

"Now we are eager for the second fixture."

We Will Still Win the Title'

The manager manages the Collegiate veterans team, who won the Top Tier title last season, along with Paul Maguire.

"We scored 1-0 up and had a