Introduce the Weekend Division Team Boasting Over 1,800 Top-Flight Matches
What can you boost a outstanding experienced team that have won consecutive championships, including a league-cup double with thirty victories from 32 matches?
Sign a group of former pro players who have played at the highest level of club and international soccer as you pursue more trophies.
A Greater Manchester team fields an amateur veterans team with nine ex- top-flight footballers in their current lineup.
222 Top Division Goals, Three Hundred Twenty-Five Global Caps
The team Veterans Over 35s are situated in south Manchester and compete in the Cheshire-based Vets League Premier Division.
The squad list this season boasts 9 ex- Premier League footballers, with a collective over 1,800 elite games.
The high-profile team also includes over 220 Premier League scores and over 320 international caps.
The squad include one forward, who scored 37 goals in 117 appearances for his former club after moving to them for nine million pounds from Bundesliga side Freiburg in 2012.
He had his debut for Wythenshawe in their most recent home-field game against reigning champions their rivals and scored every one of the six scores in a six-two win - featuring a 32-minute opening period hat-trick.
Wythenshawe's team for this season also features ex- pros such as English and Anfield striker Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley winger George Boyd, Everton striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic full-back Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight championship winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.
In total, the former top-flight footballers have claimed fifteen significant honors and moved for total transfer sums of around £123m.
Famous Figures and Global Stars
Stephen Ireland began playing for the side during pre-season this season through close friend and current team 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.
Ex- Senegal forward Niasse, who scored twelve goals in sixty-five Premier League matches for Everton and still goes to their home games, also had his first appearance against the opposition - who are located in the city and use an Blue warm-up gear as their uniform.
"A mate Stephen Ireland told me 'join and play, it's a laugh'," commented the striker.
"Then he informed me we were playing a team from Liverpool and the surprise I had when I noticed them sporting Blue kits - 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 do?
"Those spectators who turn up and see are happy and to give someone's moment if they see us playing there and to pose us questions - it's more like the pleasure of us getting a place we can play, with structure of course."
Such is the squad depth at Wythenshawe, Niasse made his debut at defender.
"It's a little unusual but then, I love running and just move forward - I'm not staying back that much," he said.
"I warn my centre-back 'I'm not hanging back' and that I'm just going to keep running.
"The movement is what I'm seeking. It's good fun."
Unreal Experience
In addition to the forward's six scores on his first game, Ireland has scored 8 in three appearances for Wythenshawe, while George Boyd hit five on his first match and Joleon Lescott, a defender by trade, notched a triple in one game up front.
Wythenshawe are top of the Premier Tier with 3 wins from three and a goal difference of plus nineteen.
Paul Barrow, 38, who plays on the wing for Collegiate OB, faced ex- Wigan full-back Maynor Figueroa on Sunday - and had to tell his young son who Heskey was.
He has appeared at two World Cups for his country, in addition to featuring in over two hundred top-flight matches.
"The news was spreading like wildfire they had all these former top-flight stars," said the player.
"I felt I was a bit awestruck facing Figueroa to be honest.
"Even Heskey came on and he's has over 60 English appearances.
"We competed well for a good twenty minutes but then we had a man sent off and it was tough.
"Our group really have not ceased talking about it - I was calling my mum and sibling on the way home.
"They were all really nice, shaking our hands after the match - it was like playing a bunch of normal guys.
"Now we can't wait for the return match."
We Will Still Take the Title'
Andy Kirby coaches the Collegiate vets side, who secured the Top Tier championship last season, along with his co-manager.
"Our team scored one-nil ahead and had a