🔗 Share this article

How do you boost a excellent experienced squad that have claimed back-to-back championships, including a league-cup double with thirty wins from 32 matches?

Bring in a raft of ex- pro players that have played at the top level of club football and international soccer as you target additional trophies.

One Manchester team has an amateur vets team with 9 former top-flight players in their current lineup.

Two Hundred Twenty-Two Premier League Scores, 325 International Caps

The team Veterans Over-35s are based in south Manchester and play in the Cheshire Vets League Premier Division.

Their squad list this season includes nine former Premier League footballers, with a combined nearly 1,800 Premier League matches.

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

They include one forward, who notched 37 goals in over 100 games for his former club after signing for them for nine million pounds from Bundesliga side Freiburg in January 2012.

He had his first appearance for the team in their most recent home match versus defending title holders their rivals and netted every one of the six scores in a 6-2 win - including a 32-minute first-half hat-trick.

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

Collectively, the ex- top-flight players have secured 15 significant honors and transferred for total transfer sums of about £123m.

Well-Known Figures and International Players

Ireland began turning out for the side during pre-season this season through good friend and present team player Blake Norton, and the ex- Republic of Ireland player then invited other former professionals, who all compete in a weekly small-sided game, to participate.

Former Senegal forward Oumar Niasse, who scored 12 scores in sixty-five top-flight matches for the Toffees and still goes to their matches at Goodison Park, also had his first appearance against Collegiate OB - who are based in Liverpool and use an Blue training kit as their uniform.

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

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

"When you still love the game and you know you can still do it, wherever you can play, what are you going to do?

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

So great is the bench strength at the club, he had his first game at defender.

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

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

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

'Surreal Scenario

Along with the forward's six goals on debut, Ireland has netted 8 in three games for Wythenshawe, while George Boyd scored 5 on his debut match and Lescott, a centre-half by trade, scored a triple in one match up front.

Wythenshawe are top of the Premier Division with three wins from 3 and a GD of plus nineteen.

Paul Barrow, thirty-eight, who plays on the flank for the opposition, came up against ex- Wigan full-back Maynor Figueroa on the weekend - and had to tell his nine-year-old boy who Heskey was.

He has played at 2 global tournaments for his country, in as well as featuring in over two hundred top-flight games.

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

"I think I was a little starstruck facing Figueroa to be honest.

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

"Our side held our own for a solid 20 mins but then we had a player sent off and it was hard.

"Our group really haven't stopped chatting about it - I was calling my mother and brother on the way home.

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

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

'We'll Still Take the Title'

The manager manages the opposition veterans team, who won the Premier Tier championship the previous campaign, together with his co-manager.

"We scored 1-0 ahead and had a