Manchester United legend Paul Scholes playing for 11th-tier Royton Town in 2018 | OneFootball

Paul Scholes will always be one of the best players to pull on the famous Manchester United shirt.

The Premier League legend made a career out of pulling the strings in some of the most famous midfields ever assembled as he plundered silverware under the tutelage of Sir Alex Ferguson.

Whether he was the greatest English midfielder ever is a hot topic of debate that we will leave for another time, but there can be no questioning he was a cut above so many.

Paul Scholes turns out for 11th tier Royton Town

So you can imagine that, being superior to even top class footballers, Scholes must’ve looked like a god amongst men when he turned out for 11th-tier side, Royton Town in 2018.

Royton, who were short on players for that sunny 2018 game, told opponents Stockport Georgians they would be drafting in a ’43-year-old dad’ to boost their numbers.

What they neglected to add is that the ‘dad’ in question was Scholes himself.

Footage of Paul Scholes playing for Royton Town

Unsurprisingy, footage of Scholes in action for Royton quickly started doing the round on Twitter and still makes for a very good watch even today.

Despite his advancing years, Scholesy was still well up for a huge 50/50 challenge as you can see in the footage below.

Video: Paul Scholes in action for Royton Town

Sadly, Scholes could do little to prevent Royton slumping to a 1-0 loss as the Stockport lads landed themselves one of the greatest badges of honour they could ever hope for.

Royton Town manager praised Paul Scholes for his efforts

Speaking after the clash, Royton manager Mark Howard praised Scholes for getting stuck in.

“We had eight or nine of our senior players missing and Paul said he’d be happy to help out if we were ever short as his son Arron plays for us,” Howard told BBC Sport.

“It’s great for the league. Opponents don’t want to look stupid in front of him.”

Royton chairman Gary Leeming added: “Usually these sort of games attract 40 or 50 people but there were a lot more there when word got out that he was playing.

“I can’t imagine Stockport Georgians have ever had so many people on their car park.

“We were down to the bare bones. He’s 43 now but he’s still got that magic wand and he was absolutely fantastic for us.

“He obviously has a lot of media commitments but he occasionally trains with us when he can and is still a great player.”