Meet this Weekend League Team With 1,800 Top-Flight Appearances
How do you boost a stellar veteran squad that have claimed consecutive championships, featuring a double triumph boasting 30 victories from thirty-two matches?
Sign a collection of ex- professionals that have performed at the top level of club and international football as you aim for additional silverware.
A Greater Manchester club fields an non-professional vets team with 9 ex- top-flight footballers in their current lineup.
Two Hundred Twenty-Two Premier League Scores, 325 International Caps
The team Veterans Over-35s are based in south the city and play in the Cheshire-based Veterans League Premier Division.
Their squad list this campaign boasts nine former Premier League footballers, with a total over 1,800 Premier League appearances.
The high-profile squad also boasts 222 Premier League scores and over 320 international appearances.
They include Papiss Cisse, who netted thirty-seven scores in 117 appearances for Newcastle United after joining them for £9m from German league club Freiburg in 2012.
Cisse had his first appearance for the team in their last home game against reigning title holders Collegiate Old Boys and netted all six scores in a six-two victory - featuring a half-hour first-half triple.
Wythenshawe's squad for this season also features ex- professionals such as England and Liverpool forward Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley midfielder George Boyd, Toffees striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan defender Maynor Figueroa, City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League title winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.
In total, the former top-flight players have secured fifteen major honors and moved for total transfer fees of about £123m.
Famous Names and International Players
Ireland began turning out for the team during preseason this season through good friend and current Wythenshawe player Blake Norton, and the ex- Republic of Ireland player then asked other ex-pros, who all play in a midweek nine-a-side game, to join in.
Ex- Senegalese striker Niasse, who netted twelve goals in sixty-five top-flight matches for the Toffees and still attends their home games, also made his first appearance against the opposition - who are located in Liverpool and wear an Everton training kit as their uniform.
"My friend Stephen said 'come and have a game, it's a laugh'," said Niasse.
"After that he informed me we were playing a team from Liverpool and the shock I had when I saw them sporting Everton kits - I say this is strange for me!
"If you still enjoy the game and you feel you can still do it, anywhere you can kick a ball, what are you going to do?
"The spectators who turn up and see are happy and to make a moment if they watch us competing there and to pose us queries - it's more like the joy of us having somewhere we can enjoy football, with structure of course."
Such is the strength in depth at Wythenshawe, Niasse made his first game at defender.
"It's a bit different but then, I love sprinting and just go inside - I'm not staying back that much," he said.
"I warn my defender 'I'm not hanging back' and that I'm just going to continue running.
"That movement is what I'm after. It's good fun."
Dreamlike' Feeling
Along with the forward's 6 scores on debut, Stephen Ireland has netted eight in 3 games for the side, while George Boyd hit five on his debut appearance and Lescott, a centre-half by trade, notched a triple in one match up front.
The team are leading of the Premier Tier with three wins from three and a goal difference of plus nineteen.
One opponent, 38, who features on the wing for Collegiate OB, came up against former Latics full-back Figueroa on Sunday - and had to explain his nine-year-old son who Heskey was.
Figueroa has appeared at 2 global tournaments for his country, in addition to featuring in over two hundred top-flight matches.
"It was going round like a rumor they had these ex-Premier League stars," remarked Barrow.
"I felt I was a little starstruck playing against Figueroa to be honest.
"Also Heskey came on and he's got over 60 English caps.
"We held our own for a good twenty mins but then we had a man dismissed and it was hard.
"We really haven't stopped chatting about it - I was phoning my mum and brother on the journey home.
"They were all friendly, shaking our hands after the match - it was like facing a bunch of regular guys.
"Now we are eager for the second match."
We Will Still Win the League'
The manager manages the Collegiate veterans team, who won the Top Tier championship the previous campaign, along with his co-manager.
"Our team scored 1-0 ahead and had a