🔗 Share this article

What can you enhance a stellar experienced team who have secured consecutive championships, featuring a league-cup double boasting thirty wins from 32 matches?

Bring in a raft of former professionals who have played at the elite tier of club football and global football as you pursue more trophies.

One Greater Manchester side boasts an amateur vets squad with 9 former top-flight players in their present lineup.

222 Top Division Scores, 325 International Caps

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

The roster this season includes nine ex- top-flight footballers, with a combined 1,801 Premier League matches.

This high-profile roster also boasts over 220 Premier League scores and 325 global appearances.

The squad include one forward, who scored 37 goals in over 100 games for Newcastle United after signing for them for nine million pounds from Bundesliga club SC Freiburg in 2012.

He had his debut for the team in their most recent home-field match against reigning title holders Collegiate Old Boys and netted all six scores in a 6-2 win - including a half-hour first-half hat-trick.

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

In total, the former Premier League players have won 15 significant trophies and moved for combined transfer sums of approximately £123 million.

Well-Known Figures and International Stars

Ireland began turning out for the team in pre-season this summer through good mate and present team player Blake Norton, and the former Republic of Ireland player then asked additional former professionals, who all compete in a midweek nine-a-side game, to participate.

Ex- Senegal forward Niasse, who scored 12 goals in 65 Premier League games for the Toffees and even now attends their home games, also made his debut against Collegiate OB - who are based in Liverpool and wear an Everton training kit as their strip.

"A friend Stephen said 'join and play, it's enjoyable'," said the striker.

"After that he told me we were playing a side from Liverpool and the shock I had when I noticed them sporting Blue shirts - I say this is wrong for me!

"If you still love football and you feel you can still play, anywhere you can play, what are you going to choose?

"Those fans who come and see are pleased and to give a day if they watch us competing there and to ask us questions - it's really about the joy of us getting somewhere we can enjoy football, with organisation of course."

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

"It's a little unusual but then, I enjoy sprinting and just go forward - I'm not defending that much," he said.

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

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

Unreal Scenario

In addition to Cisse's 6 goals on debut, Ireland has netted 8 in 3 appearances for Wythenshawe, while Boyd hit five on his debut match and Lescott, a defender by trade, scored a hat-trick in one match up front.

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

One opponent, 38, who features on the flank for Collegiate OB, came up against ex- Latics defender Figueroa on Sunday - and had to explain his nine-year-old boy who Emile Heskey was.

Figueroa has played at two global tournaments for his country, in addition to playing in more than 200 top-flight 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 came on and he's has over 60 English caps.

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

"Our group really have not stopped talking about it - I was calling my mother and sibling on the journey home.

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

"Now we are eager for the second fixture."

'We'll Still Take the League'

Andy Kirby coaches the Collegiate veterans side, who won the Top Tier title the previous campaign, along with Paul Maguire.

"Our team went 1-0 up and had a