Discover the Weekend Division Club With Nearly Two Thousand English Top Division Games
What do you boost a outstanding experienced squad who have won consecutive championships, including a league-cup double boasting 30 wins from 32 games?
Sign a collection of ex- pro players that have performed at the highest tier of club and global soccer as you aim for additional trophies.
A Manchester side boasts an non-professional veterans team with nine former Premier League footballers in their active lineup.
222 Premier League Goals, 325 Global Appearances
Wythenshawe Vets Over-35s are located in south the city and play in the Cheshire-based Veterans League Top Division.
Their lineup this campaign includes nine former Premier League footballers, with a total nearly 1,800 elite games.
The star-studded squad also boasts 222 Premier League scores and 325 global appearances.
They feature one forward, who netted thirty-seven scores in 117 appearances for Newcastle United after moving to them for nine million pounds from Bundesliga side SC Freiburg in January 2012.
He made his first appearance for Wythenshawe in their last home-field game versus reigning champions their rivals and netted all six scores in a six-two win - featuring a 32-minute first-half hat-trick.
Wythenshawe's team for this campaign also includes former pros such as English and Liverpool forward Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley winger George Boyd, Everton forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic defender Maynor Figueroa, City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League championship winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.
Together, the ex- top-flight footballers have secured fifteen major honors and moved for combined transfer fees of about £123m.
Well-Known Names and International Players
Stephen Ireland began turning out for the team in preseason this season through close mate and present Wythenshawe teammate Blake Norton, and the ex- Irish midfielder then invited other ex-pros, who all play in a weekly nine-a-side match, to participate.
Former Senegal striker Oumar Niasse, who scored twelve goals in 65 Premier League games for the Toffees and even now attends their matches at Goodison Park, also made his first appearance against the opposition - who are located in the city and wear an Blue warm-up gear as their uniform.
"A mate Stephen Ireland told me 'come and play, it's a laugh'," commented the striker.
"Then he told me we were facing a team from Liverpool and the shock I had when I saw them wearing Everton shirts - I thought this is strange for me!
"When you still enjoy football and you know you can still play, wherever you can play, what are you going to do?
"The spectators who come and watch are pleased and to make a moment if they watch us playing there and to ask us queries - it's more like the pleasure of us having a place we can play, with organisation of course."
Such is the strength in depth at the club, Niasse had 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 added.
"I tell my centre-back 'I'm not hanging back' and that I'm just going to keep attacking.
"That movement is what I'm after. It's good fun."
Unreal Feeling
Along with the forward's six goals on debut, Stephen Ireland has netted eight in three appearances for the side, while Boyd hit five on his first match and Joleon Lescott, a centre-half by position, scored a triple in one match as a striker.
The team are leading of the Top Division with three wins from 3 and a GD of +19.
Paul Barrow, 38, who plays on the wing for the opposition, faced ex- Wigan full-back Figueroa on the weekend - and had to explain his nine-year-old son who Heskey was.
He has appeared at 2 global tournaments for Honduras, in as well as featuring in more than two hundred top-flight games.
"It was going round like a rumor they had all these former top-flight stars," said Barrow.
"I think I was a little starstruck playing against him to be honest.
"Also Emile [Heskey] came on and he's got 60-odd England caps.
"We competed well for a good 20 minutes but then we had a man dismissed and it was tough.
"Our group literally have not ceased talking about it - I was calling my mother and brother on the way home.
"They were all really nice, shaking our hands after the game - it was like facing a bunch of normal guys.
"Now we are eager for the return match."
'We'll Still Take the Title'
Andy Kirby coaches the Collegiate veterans side, who secured the Top Division championship the previous campaign, along with his co-manager.
"We went one-nil ahead and had a