🔗 Share this article

How do you boost a stellar veteran squad that have won back-to-back titles, featuring a league-cup double with thirty wins from 32 games?

Bring in a group of ex- pro players that have competed at the elite tier of club and international soccer as you target more honors.

A Greater Manchester club fields an amateur veterans squad with 9 former Premier League players in their present roster.

222 Premier League Scores, 325 Global Caps

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

Their roster this season includes 9 former top-flight players, with a total 1,801 top-flight appearances.

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

They feature one forward, who notched thirty-seven goals in 117 appearances for Newcastle United after joining them for £9m from German league club Freiburg in January 2012.

He made his debut for Wythenshawe in their most recent home match against reigning champions Collegiate Old Boys and netted all six goals in a 6-2 victory - including a 32-minute opening period triple.

The team for this campaign also features ex- professionals such as England and Liverpool forward Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley FC midfielder George Boyd, Everton striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan defender Maynor Figueroa, City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight championship victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

Collectively, the former top-flight players have won fifteen big honors and transferred for combined transfer sums of approximately £123m.

Household Names and Global Players

Stephen Ireland started turning out for the team during preseason this season through good mate and present team player Blake Norton, and the former Republic of Ireland midfielder then invited additional former professionals, who all compete in a midweek small-sided match, to join in.

Former Senegal forward Niasse, who netted 12 scores in sixty-five top-flight matches for Everton and even now goes to their home games, also made his first appearance versus the opposition - who are located in the city and wear an Blue warm-up gear as their uniform.

"My mate Stephen said 'come and have a game, it's enjoyable'," said Niasse.

"After that he told me we were facing a team from Liverpool and the shock I had when I noticed them sporting Blue kits - I say 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 people who come and see are pleased and to make someone's day if they see us competing there and to pose us questions - it's really about the joy of us getting a place we can play, with structure of course."

So great is the squad depth at the club, Niasse had his first game at defender.

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

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

"That running is what I'm after. It's enjoyable."

Unreal Scenario

In addition to the forward's six scores on debut, Stephen Ireland has scored 8 in 3 appearances for the side, while Boyd hit 5 on his debut appearance and Lescott, a centre-half by trade, notched a hat-trick in one match up front.

Wythenshawe are leading of the Premier Division with 3 victories from three and a goal difference of plus nineteen.

One opponent, 38, who features on the wing for Collegiate OB, faced ex- Latics full-back Maynor Figueroa on Sunday - and had to tell his nine-year-old son who Emile Heskey was.

He has played at 2 World Cups for his country, in as well as playing in more than two hundred Premier League matches.

"It was spreading like a rumor they had these former top-flight stars," remarked the player.

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

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

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

"We really haven't ceased chatting about it - I was phoning my mum and sibling on the way home.

"They 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 return match."

'We'll Still Win the Title'

The manager coaches the opposition vets side, who secured the Premier Tier title the previous campaign, along with his co-manager.

"Our team went one-nil ahead and had a