Meet the Weekend League Team Featuring Over 1,800 Top-Flight Matches
What can you improve a stellar veteran squad that have won consecutive championships, featuring a league-cup double with thirty victories from 32 matches?
Bring in a group of ex- pro players that have competed at the top level of club football and international soccer as you target additional trophies.
One Manchester club boasts an non-professional veterans team with nine former top-flight players in their active squad.
222 Top Division Scores, Three Hundred Twenty-Five Global Appearances
Wythenshawe Veterans Over 35s are located in south the city and play in the Cheshire Veterans League Premier Division.
The roster this campaign features 9 former top-flight footballers, with a collective nearly 1,800 Premier League appearances.
This star-studded team also contains 222 Premier League goals and 325 international appearances.
The squad include Papiss Cisse, who scored thirty-seven 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 first appearance for the team in their most recent home-field match against reigning champions Collegiate Old Boys and scored every one of the six scores in a 6-2 victory - including a 32-minute opening period triple.
Wythenshawe's roster for this season also includes ex- professionals such as English and Liverpool forward Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley midfielder George Boyd, Everton forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic full-back Maynor Figueroa, City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight title winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.
Collectively, the ex- Premier League footballers have claimed 15 big honors and moved for total transfer sums of approximately £123m.
Famous Figures and International Stars
Stephen Ireland began turning out for the side in pre-season this season through good friend and present team teammate Blake Norton, and the ex- Republic of Ireland player then asked additional former professionals, who all play in a midweek nine-a-side game, to participate.
Former Senegal striker Niasse, who netted twelve goals in 65 Premier League matches for Everton and still goes to their home games, also had his debut against Collegiate OB - who are located in the city and use an Blue training kit as their strip.
"A friend Stephen said 'come and have a game, it's a laugh'," commented Niasse.
"After that he informed me we were facing a team from the city and the shock I had when I saw them wearing Blue shirts - I say this is wrong for me!
"If you still enjoy the game and you feel you can still play, wherever you can play, what are you going to choose?
"Those people who turn up and watch are happy and to make someone's moment if they watch us competing there and to ask us questions - it's more like the pleasure of us having somewhere we can play, with structure of course."
So great is the squad depth at the club, he had his first game at full-back.
"It's a little unusual but then, I enjoy running and just go inside - I'm not defending that much," he said.
"I tell my centre-back 'I'm not staying' and that I'm just going to continue running.
"That running is what I'm looking for. It's enjoyable."
Unreal Feeling
Along with the forward's six scores on his first game, Ireland has netted eight in 3 games for Wythenshawe, while George Boyd hit 5 on his debut match and Joleon Lescott, a centre-half by position, notched a hat-trick in one game as a striker.
The team are leading of the Premier Tier with three victories from 3 and a goal difference of plus nineteen.
Paul Barrow, 38, who features on the wing for Collegiate OB, faced ex- Wigan full-back Maynor Figueroa on the weekend - and had to explain his young son who Heskey was.
Figueroa has played at two global tournaments for Honduras, in addition to featuring in over two hundred Premier League matches.
"It was going round like wildfire they had these former top-flight stars," remarked the player.
"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.
"Our side held our own for a solid 20 mins but then we had a player dismissed and it was tough.
"Our group literally have not ceased talking about it - I was phoning my mum and brother on the way home.
"They were all really nice, shaking our hands after the match - it was like facing a bunch of normal fellas.
"Now we can't wait for the second match."
'We'll Still Take the League'
The manager coaches the Collegiate vets side, who secured the Top Tier title last season, together with his co-manager.
"We went one-nil up and had a