Meet the Weekend Division Club Boasting Over 1,800 Top-Flight Appearances
How do you boost a excellent veteran squad that have won back-to-back titles, featuring a league-cup double boasting thirty wins from 32 matches?
Recruit a collection of ex- professionals who have performed at the top tier of club football and global soccer as you aim for more trophies.
One Manchester club has an non-professional vets squad with nine former Premier League players in their present lineup.
222 Top Division Goals, Three Hundred Twenty-Five Global Caps
The team Veterans Over-35s are located in south Manchester and play in the Cheshire-based Veterans League Premier Division.
The squad list this campaign boasts nine ex- top-flight footballers, with a combined over 1,800 Premier League matches.
The elite team also boasts over 220 top division scores and over 320 international caps.
They include Papiss Cisse, who scored thirty-seven scores in over 100 games for his former club after signing for them for £9m from German league side SC Freiburg in January 2012.
Cisse made his first appearance for the team in their most recent home-field game versus defending title holders Collegiate Old Boys and scored every one of the six goals in a 6-2 win - featuring a 32-minute opening period triple.
Wythenshawe's team for this season also includes former professionals such as England and Anfield striker Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley midfielder George Boyd, Toffees forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic full-back Maynor Figueroa, City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight title victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.
In total, the former top-flight players have secured fifteen major trophies and moved for total transfer fees of approximately £123m.
Household Names and Global Players
Ireland started turning out for the side in pre-season this season through good mate and current team teammate Blake Norton, and the former Irish player then invited other ex-pros, who all compete in a midweek nine-a-side match, to participate.
Former Senegal forward Niasse, who scored twelve scores in sixty-five Premier League games for the Toffees and even now attends their home games, also made his debut against Collegiate OB - who are based in Liverpool and wear an Everton warm-up gear as their strip.
"A mate Stephen Ireland said 'come and play, it's good fun'," commented Niasse.
"Then he told me we were facing a side from Liverpool and the shock I had when I noticed them sporting Everton kits - I thought this is wrong for me!
"When you still love the game and you know you can still play, anywhere you can kick a ball, what are you going to do?
"The fans who turn up and watch are happy and to make a moment if they watch us competing there and to pose us queries - it's really about the joy of us getting somewhere we can enjoy football, with structure of course."
So great is the bench strength at the club, Niasse made his first game 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 tell my defender 'I'm not staying' and that I'm just going to keep attacking.
"The running is what I'm seeking. It's enjoyable."
'Surreal Experience
In addition to the forward's 6 scores on his first game, Stephen Ireland has scored eight in three games for Wythenshawe, while Boyd scored five on his first appearance and Joleon Lescott, a centre-half by trade, notched a triple in one match up front.
The team are top of the Top Tier with three wins from 3 and a goal difference of +19.
Paul Barrow, thirty-eight, who plays on the wing for the opposition, faced ex- Wigan defender Maynor Figueroa on the weekend - and had to tell his young son who Emile Heskey was.
Figueroa has played at two World Cups for his country, in as well as playing in over 200 top-flight matches.
"The news was going round like wildfire they had all these former top-flight players," said the player.
"I felt I was a bit awestruck playing against Figueroa to be honest.
"Also Heskey got on and he's got over 60 English caps.
"We held our own for a solid 20 minutes but then we had a man sent off and it was hard.
"We really haven't stopped chatting about it - I was calling my mum and brother on the journey home.
"The opponents were all really nice, shaking our hands after the game - it was like playing a group of regular fellas.
"Now we can't wait for the second fixture."
We Will Still Win the Title'
The manager coaches the opposition vets team, who secured the Premier Tier championship last season, together with his co-manager.
"We scored one-nil ahead and had a