🔗 Share this article

What do you enhance a stellar experienced squad who have secured consecutive championships, including a double triumph boasting thirty wins from 32 matches?

Recruit a raft of ex- professionals who have played at the top level of club and global football as you pursue further honors.

A Greater Manchester team boasts an non-professional vets squad with nine ex- Premier League footballers in their active roster.

222 Top Division Goals, 325 International Caps

The team Vets Over-35s are located in southern Manchester and play in the Cheshire-based Vets League Premier Tier.

The squad list this campaign includes 9 former Premier League players, with a total nearly 1,800 elite games.

The high-profile squad also includes 222 top division scores and over 320 international appearances.

The squad feature one forward, who scored 37 goals in over 100 appearances for his former club after signing for them for nine million pounds from Bundesliga side SC Freiburg in 2012.

He had his debut for the team in their last home match versus defending champions Collegiate Old Boys and netted every one of the six goals in a six-two victory - including a 32-minute opening period triple.

Wythenshawe's squad for this season also includes former pros such as English and Anfield striker Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley winger George Boyd, Toffees striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan defender Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight championship victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

In total, the former top-flight footballers have won 15 big trophies and transferred for total transfer fees of approximately £123 million.

Well-Known Figures and International Stars

Stephen Ireland started playing for the team during preseason this summer 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.

Ex- Senegal striker Oumar Niasse, who scored 12 scores in 65 Premier League matches for Everton and still goes to their matches at Goodison Park, also had his first appearance versus the opposition - who are based in the city and wear an Everton training kit as their uniform.

"A friend Stephen Ireland told me 'come and play, it's a laugh'," said the striker.

"After that he told me we were playing a team from the city and the shock I had when I saw them wearing Everton shirts - I thought this is strange for me!

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

"Those people who come and watch are pleased and to make a moment if they watch us competing there and to ask us questions - it's really about the joy of us getting a place we can play, with structure of course."

Such is the bench strength at the club, Niasse made his first game at defender.

"That's a bit unusual but then, I love sprinting and just move inside - I'm not defending that much," he said.

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

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

Dreamlike' Feeling

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

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

One opponent, thirty-eight, who features on the flank for the opposition, faced ex- Latics defender Maynor Figueroa on the weekend - and had to explain his nine-year-old son who Heskey was.

He has appeared at two World Cups for his country, in as well as featuring in over 200 top-flight matches.

"It was spreading like a rumor they had all these ex-Premier League stars," said Barrow.

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

"Also Emile [Heskey] came on and he's has over 60 England caps.

"Our side competed well for a solid twenty minutes but then we had a player dismissed and it was tough.

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

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

"Now we are eager for the return fixture."

'We'll Still Win the League'

Andy Kirby coaches the opposition veterans team, who won the Top Tier championship the previous campaign, along with Paul Maguire.

"We went one-nil up and had a