🔗 Share this article

What can you boost a stellar veteran team that have claimed consecutive titles, featuring a double triumph with 30 wins from 32 matches?

Sign a raft of ex- professionals that have performed at the highest level of club football and global soccer as you target additional honors.

One Manchester side fields an amateur veterans squad with nine ex- Premier League players in their present roster.

222 Premier League Scores, 325 Global Appearances

Wythenshawe Veterans Over-35s are situated in south Manchester and compete in the Cheshire-based Vets Division Premier Tier.

The lineup this campaign boasts nine former Premier League footballers, with a collective over 1,800 elite appearances.

This elite squad also boasts over 220 top division goals and over 320 global appearances.

The squad feature one forward, who netted thirty-seven scores in 117 games for Newcastle United after joining them for £9m from Bundesliga club Freiburg in 2012.

He made his first appearance for the team in their most recent home match against defending champions their rivals and netted all six scores in a six-two win - featuring a half-hour first-half triple.

Wythenshawe's team for this campaign also includes ex- pros such as England and Liverpool forward Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley midfielder George Boyd, Toffees forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic defender Maynor Figueroa, City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight championship victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

In total, the former top-flight footballers have secured 15 major honors and moved for total transfer fees of about £123m.

Well-Known Figures and Global Players

Stephen Ireland started turning out for the side during preseason this season through close friend and current Wythenshawe teammate Blake Norton, and the former Irish midfielder then invited additional former professionals, who all play in a weekly small-sided game, to join in.

Ex- Senegal forward Oumar Niasse, who scored twelve scores in 65 top-flight games for the Toffees and still goes to their matches at Goodison Park, also made his debut versus Collegiate OB - who are based in Liverpool and use an Everton training kit as their uniform.

"My friend Stephen Ireland said 'join and play, it's a laugh'," commented the striker.

"After that he informed me we were facing a team from the city and the surprise I had when I saw them sporting Everton shirts - I thought this is strange for me!

"When you still love the game and you feel you can still play, wherever you can kick a ball, what are you going to choose?

"Those people who turn up and see are happy and to give someone's day if they see us playing there and to pose us queries - it's more like the pleasure of us having somewhere we can play, with organisation of course."

Such is the squad depth at Wythenshawe, Niasse made his debut at full-back.

"It's a little different but then, I love running and just move forward - 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 continue running.

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

'Surreal Feeling

Along with Cisse's six scores on his first game, Stephen Ireland has netted 8 in three appearances for the side, while Boyd scored five on his debut appearance and Joleon Lescott, a centre-half by position, scored a hat-trick in one match as a striker.

Wythenshawe are top of the Top Division with 3 wins from three and a GD of +19.

One opponent, 38, who features on the wing for the opposition, faced former Wigan full-back Maynor Figueroa on Sunday - and had to explain his nine-year-old boy who Heskey was.

Figueroa has appeared at two global tournaments for Honduras, in as well as playing in more than 200 Premier League matches.

"It was going round like a rumor they had all these ex-Premier League stars," said the player.

"I felt I was a little awestruck facing Figueroa to be honest.

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

"Our side competed well for a good twenty mins but then we had a man sent off and it was tough.

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

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

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

'We'll Still Take the Title'

Andy Kirby manages the opposition vets team, who secured the Top Division title the previous campaign, along with Paul Maguire.

"We went one-nil up and had a