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How can you boost a outstanding veteran team that have claimed back-to-back championships, including a league-cup double with 30 victories from 32 matches?

Recruit a collection of former pro players that have competed at the elite tier of club and international soccer as you aim for additional trophies.

One Greater Manchester team has an amateur veterans squad with 9 ex- Premier League players in their present squad.

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

Wythenshawe Veterans Over-35s are located in southern the city and play in the Cheshire Veterans League Top Division.

The roster this campaign includes nine ex- top-flight players, with a total over 1,800 elite games.

The star-studded squad also boasts 222 top division scores and over 320 global caps.

They include one forward, who scored 37 goals in 117 games for his former club after signing for them for nine million pounds from German league club Freiburg in 2012.

He made his debut for the team in their last home-field game against defending champions their rivals and scored every one of the six scores in a six-two win - featuring a half-hour opening period triple.

The squad for this season also includes former pros such as English and Anfield forward Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley winger George Boyd, Toffees striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic defender Maynor Figueroa, City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League championship winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

Collectively, the ex- top-flight players have secured fifteen significant trophies and moved for combined transfer fees of about £123 million.

Famous Figures and International Players

Stephen Ireland started playing for the team in preseason this summer through close friend and present Wythenshawe player Blake Norton, and the former Republic of Ireland midfielder then invited additional ex-pros, who all play in a weekly small-sided game, to participate.

Former Senegal forward Niasse, who netted twelve goals in sixty-five top-flight matches for the Toffees and still goes to their matches at Goodison Park, also had his first appearance versus Collegiate OB - who are located in Liverpool and use an Everton warm-up gear as their strip.

"My mate Stephen Ireland told me 'come and have a game, it's enjoyable'," said the striker.

"After that he told me we were facing a side from Liverpool and the shock I had when I saw them wearing Everton kits - I thought this is strange for me!

"If you still enjoy football and you feel you can still play, anywhere you can play, what are you going to choose?

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

So great is the bench strength at the club, Niasse made his debut at full-back.

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

"The movement is what I'm after. It's enjoyable."

Dreamlike' Feeling

Along with the forward's 6 goals on debut, Stephen Ireland has scored 8 in three appearances for Wythenshawe, while Boyd scored five on his first match and Lescott, a defender by trade, scored a triple in one game as a striker.

The team are top of the Top Tier with 3 wins from three and a goal difference of +19.

Paul Barrow, thirty-eight, who features on the wing for the opposition, faced former Wigan defender Figueroa on Sunday - and had to explain his nine-year-old son who Heskey was.

He has appeared at two World Cups for his country, in addition to playing in over 200 top-flight matches.

"The news was spreading like a rumor they had these former top-flight players," said the player.

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

"Also Heskey got on and he's has 60-odd England caps.

"Our side held our own for a solid twenty mins but then we had a player sent off and it was hard.

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

"The opponents were all really nice, shaking our hands after the game - it was like facing a group of normal fellas.

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

We Will Still Take the Title'

Andy Kirby coaches the Collegiate veterans team, who won the Premier Division title last season, together with Paul Maguire.

"We scored one-nil ahead and had a