Discover this Weekend League Squad With Nearly Two Thousand Top-Flight Games
What can you enhance a excellent veteran squad that have claimed back-to-back titles, featuring a double triumph boasting 30 wins from 32 matches?
Bring in a group of former professionals who have competed at the elite tier of club and global soccer as you pursue further silverware.
One Greater Manchester team has an amateur vets squad with nine former Premier League footballers in their current squad.
222 Top Division Goals, 325 Global Caps
Wythenshawe Veterans Over 35s are located in south the city and compete in the Cheshire-based Vets Division Premier Division.
Their lineup this campaign includes nine ex- top-flight footballers, with a total over 1,800 elite games.
The elite roster also includes over 220 Premier League goals and 325 international appearances.
The squad feature Papiss Cisse, who netted thirty-seven goals in over 100 appearances for his former club after joining them for nine million pounds from Bundesliga club Freiburg in January 2012.
Cisse made his debut for Wythenshawe in their last home game versus reigning title holders Collegiate Old Boys and scored every one of the six scores in a six-two victory - including a half-hour opening period triple.
The roster for this season also features ex- professionals such as English and Anfield forward Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley FC midfielder George Boyd, Toffees striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan full-back Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight title winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.
In total, the former top-flight players have secured 15 big trophies and moved for combined transfer sums of about £123 million.
Well-Known Names and International Stars
Ireland started playing for the side in preseason this season through close friend and present team player Blake Norton, and the ex- Republic of Ireland midfielder then asked additional former professionals, who all compete in a midweek nine-a-side match, to join in.
Ex- Senegalese forward Oumar Niasse, who scored 12 scores in sixty-five Premier League matches for the Toffees and even now attends their matches at Goodison Park, also made his first appearance against the opposition - who are based in Liverpool and use an Blue warm-up gear as their strip.
"My friend Stephen Ireland said 'come and play, it's good fun'," said the striker.
"Then he informed me we were playing a team from the city and the surprise I had when I noticed them wearing Blue kits - I say this is strange for me!
"When you still enjoy the game and you know you can still do it, anywhere you can play, what are you going to do?
"The spectators who come and watch are happy and to give a moment if they watch us competing there and to pose us questions - it's more like the pleasure of us getting a place we can play, with organisation of course."
So great is the strength in depth at Wythenshawe, he made his debut at full-back.
"It's a bit unusual but then, I love running and just move inside - I'm not staying back that much," he added.
"I warn my defender 'I'm not hanging back' and that I'm just going to keep running.
"The running is what I'm after. It's enjoyable."
'Surreal Feeling
Along with Cisse's 6 goals on his first game, Ireland has scored 8 in three games for Wythenshawe, while George Boyd scored 5 on his first appearance and Joleon Lescott, a defender by position, notched a hat-trick in one game up front.
Wythenshawe are top of the Top Division with three wins from three and a goal difference of plus nineteen.
One opponent, thirty-eight, who features on the flank for Collegiate OB, faced former Latics defender Figueroa on the weekend - and had to tell his young son who Emile Heskey was.
Figueroa has played at 2 global tournaments for Honduras, in addition to playing in more than 200 Premier League games.
"The news was spreading like wildfire they had these former top-flight stars," remarked the player.
"I felt I was a little starstruck facing him to be honest.
"Even Heskey got on and he's got 60-odd English appearances.
"We competed well for a solid twenty mins but then we had a man sent off and it was hard.
"We literally have not stopped talking about it - I was phoning my mum and brother on the journey home.
"The opponents were all friendly, shaking our hands after the game - it was like playing a bunch of regular fellas.
"Now we are eager for the second fixture."
We Will Still Take the League'
Andy Kirby coaches the opposition veterans team, who secured the Premier Division championship the previous campaign, along with Paul Maguire.
"Our team scored 1-0 ahead and had a