🔗 Share this article

How do you improve a outstanding experienced team who have secured consecutive championships, including a double triumph with thirty wins from 32 matches?

Bring in a group of former pro players who have played at the elite tier of club football and international soccer as you pursue more trophies.

One Manchester side fields an non-professional vets squad with nine former Premier League players in their active lineup.

Two Hundred Twenty-Two Top Division Scores, 325 International Caps

Wythenshawe Vets Over 35s are situated in south the city and play in the Cheshire-based Vets Division Top Division.

Their lineup this campaign includes 9 ex- top-flight footballers, with a combined 1,801 Premier League matches.

The high-profile roster also includes over 220 top division goals and 325 international appearances.

The squad include one forward, who netted 37 scores in 117 games for his former club after joining them for £9m from German league club Freiburg in January 2012.

He had his debut for Wythenshawe in their last home game against reigning champions Collegiate Old Boys and netted every one of the six scores in a 6-2 victory - including a 32-minute first-half triple.

Wythenshawe's team for this season also includes former pros such as England and Liverpool striker Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley FC midfielder George Boyd, Everton forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic full-back Maynor Figueroa, City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight title winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

Together, the former Premier League players have won fifteen significant honors and transferred for combined transfer fees of about £123 million.

Well-Known Names and International Stars

Stephen Ireland started turning out for the side in preseason this summer through good mate and current Wythenshawe player Blake Norton, and the former Republic of Ireland midfielder then invited other ex-pros, who all play in a midweek small-sided game, to participate.

Former Senegalese forward Oumar Niasse, who netted twelve scores in 65 Premier League games for the Toffees and even now attends their matches at Goodison Park, also made his debut against the opposition - who are based in the city and use an Blue warm-up gear as their strip.

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

"Then he informed me we were playing a side from Liverpool and the surprise I had when I saw them wearing Everton kits - I say this is wrong for me!

"When you still enjoy football and you feel you can still do it, anywhere 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 watch us playing there and to pose us questions - it's more like the joy of us getting a place we can enjoy football, with structure of course."

Such is the strength in depth at the club, he made his debut at full-back.

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

"I warn my defender 'I'm not staying' and that I'm just going to continue attacking.

"That movement is what I'm looking for. It's good fun."

'Surreal Feeling

In addition to the forward's six scores on debut, Ireland has scored eight in three games for Wythenshawe, while Boyd scored 5 on his first appearance and Joleon Lescott, a defender by position, notched a triple in one match as a striker.

Wythenshawe are leading of the Top Division with three victories from 3 and a GD of plus nineteen.

One opponent, thirty-eight, who plays on the wing for Collegiate OB, faced ex- Latics full-back Figueroa on the weekend - and had to tell his nine-year-old son who Emile Heskey was.

Figueroa has played at two global tournaments for his country, in addition to playing in over two hundred top-flight games.

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

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

"Even Heskey came on and he's has 60-odd England caps.

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

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

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

"Now we are eager for the second fixture."

'We'll Still Take the Title'

Andy Kirby manages the opposition vets team, who won the Premier Division championship the previous campaign, together with Paul Maguire.

"Our team went 1-0 ahead and had a