Introduce the Weekend League Team Featuring Nearly Two Thousand English Top Division Matches
How can you enhance a outstanding veteran side who have claimed consecutive titles, featuring a league-cup double boasting 30 victories from thirty-two games?
Bring in a group of ex- pro players that have performed at the elite level of club football and global soccer as you pursue additional honors.
A Greater Manchester team boasts an non-professional veterans team with nine ex- top-flight footballers in their active lineup.
222 Top Division Goals, Three Hundred Twenty-Five International Caps
Wythenshawe Vets Over 35s are based in southern the city and compete in the Cheshire Veterans League Top Division.
The roster this season boasts 9 former Premier League footballers, with a combined nearly 1,800 Premier League appearances.
This elite roster also contains over 220 top division scores and 325 international caps.
The squad feature Papiss Cisse, who scored thirty-seven scores in over 100 games for his former club after joining them for £9m from German league side Freiburg in January 2012.
He had his first appearance for Wythenshawe in their most recent home-field game against reigning title holders their rivals and scored every one of the six scores in a 6-2 win - featuring a 32-minute first-half hat-trick.
The roster for this campaign also includes former pros such as England and Liverpool striker Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley winger George Boyd, Everton forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan full-back Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League championship victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.
In total, the ex- Premier League footballers have secured fifteen major trophies and transferred for combined transfer sums of approximately £123 million.
Well-Known Names and Global Players
Stephen Ireland started turning out for the side during pre-season this season through good friend and present Wythenshawe player Blake Norton, and the ex- Republic of Ireland midfielder then asked additional former professionals, who all play in a midweek small-sided match, to join in.
Former Senegalese striker Niasse, who scored twelve goals in sixty-five Premier League games for the Toffees and still attends their home games, also had his first appearance against Collegiate OB - who are based in the city and wear an Everton warm-up gear as their uniform.
"My friend Stephen said 'join and have a game, it's enjoyable'," commented the striker.
"After that he told me we were facing a team from the city and the shock I had when I saw them wearing Everton kits - I thought this is strange for me!
"When you still enjoy the game and you know you can still play, anywhere you can play, what are you going to choose?
"The people who come and see are happy and to give someone's day if they watch us competing there and to ask us questions - it's more like the pleasure of us getting somewhere we can play, with structure of course."
So great is the bench strength at Wythenshawe, Niasse had his debut at defender.
"That's a bit different but then, I love sprinting and just move forward - I'm not staying back that much," he added.
"I tell my centre-back 'I'm not hanging back' and that I'm just going to continue attacking.
"The running is what I'm looking for. It's enjoyable."
'Surreal Scenario
In addition to the forward's six goals on his first game, Stephen Ireland has scored eight in three games for the side, while George Boyd scored five on his first match and Joleon Lescott, a defender by trade, scored a hat-trick in one match up front.
Wythenshawe are top of the Top Division with three wins from three and a GD of plus nineteen.
Paul Barrow, 38, who features on the wing for the opposition, came up against ex- Latics full-back Maynor Figueroa on Sunday - and had to tell his young son who Heskey was.
He has appeared at two World Cups for his country, in addition to playing in over 200 Premier League games.
"It was spreading like a rumor they had these ex-Premier League stars," remarked Barrow.
"I felt I was a little starstruck playing against him to be honest.
"Also Heskey got on and he's has 60-odd England appearances.
"We competed well for a solid 20 mins but then we had a man dismissed and it was tough.
"Our group really haven't ceased talking about it - I was calling my mother and brother on the journey home.
"They were all dead sound, shaking our hands after the match - it was like facing a group of regular guys.
"Now we are eager for the return match."
We Will Still Win the League'
Andy Kirby coaches the Collegiate veterans team, who won the Top Tier title the previous campaign, along with Paul Maguire.
"We went one-nil ahead and had a