🔗 Share this article

How do you improve a outstanding experienced team who have won back-to-back titles, including a league-cup double with thirty victories from thirty-two matches?

Bring in a group of former pro players who have performed at the highest level of club and global soccer as you aim for more trophies.

A Greater Manchester side fields an non-professional veterans team with 9 ex- Premier League players in their present roster.

Two Hundred Twenty-Two Top Division Goals, 325 Global Appearances

The team Veterans Over 35s are located in south Manchester and compete in the Cheshire Veterans League Top Division.

The squad list this campaign features nine ex- top-flight players, with a collective 1,801 top-flight matches.

The elite roster also contains over 220 Premier League scores and over 320 international caps.

They include one forward, who notched thirty-seven scores in 117 games for Newcastle United after signing for them for £9m from Bundesliga side SC Freiburg in January 2012.

He had his first appearance for Wythenshawe in their most recent home-field game versus defending champions Collegiate Old Boys and netted every one of the six goals in a 6-2 win - featuring a 32-minute opening period hat-trick.

The team for this season also features former pros such as England and Anfield forward Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley FC midfielder George Boyd, Everton forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan defender Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight title winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

In total, the former Premier League players have secured 15 major honors and transferred for combined transfer fees of around £123 million.

Famous Figures and International Stars

Ireland started playing for the team in pre-season this summer through good friend and current team teammate Blake Norton, and the ex- Irish midfielder then invited additional former professionals, who all compete in a midweek small-sided game, to join in.

Former Senegalese forward Oumar Niasse, who netted 12 scores in sixty-five Premier League games for the Toffees and still goes to their home games, also had his debut versus the opposition - who are based in the city and wear an Blue warm-up gear as their strip.

"My mate Stephen said 'join and have a game, it's good fun'," commented the striker.

"Then he informed me we were facing a side from Liverpool and the surprise I had when I noticed them sporting Blue kits - I say this is wrong for me!

"If you still enjoy the game and you know you can still play, anywhere you can kick a ball, what are you going to choose?

"The people who come and see are happy and to give someone's moment if they watch us playing there and to ask us questions - it's really about the joy of us getting a place we can enjoy football, with structure of course."

So great is the bench strength at Wythenshawe, he made his first game at defender.

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

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

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

Unreal Scenario

Along with Cisse's 6 scores on his first game, Stephen Ireland has netted eight in three games for the side, while George Boyd hit five on his first match and Joleon Lescott, a centre-half by position, notched a triple in one match as a striker.

The team are top of the Premier Tier with 3 victories from 3 and a GD of plus nineteen.

One opponent, 38, who plays on the wing for Collegiate OB, came up against ex- Wigan full-back Figueroa on Sunday - and had to tell his nine-year-old boy who Heskey was.

Figueroa has played at 2 World Cups for his country, in as well as playing in over 200 Premier League matches.

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

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

"Also Heskey came on and he's got over 60 England appearances.

"We competed well for a solid 20 minutes but then we had a man sent off and it was tough.

"Our group really haven't ceased talking about it - I was phoning my mum and sibling on the journey home.

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

"Now we are eager for the return match."

'We'll Still Take the Title'

Andy Kirby manages the Collegiate veterans side, who secured the Premier Tier championship the previous campaign, together with his co-manager.

"We scored one-nil up and had a