Discover the Weekend League Squad Boasting Nearly Two Thousand Premier League Games
What can you enhance a outstanding veteran team who have claimed consecutive titles, including a double triumph boasting 30 victories from thirty-two matches?
Bring in a collection of former professionals that have competed at the top tier of club football and global soccer as you target more trophies.
A Greater Manchester club boasts an amateur vets team with 9 ex- Premier League footballers in their current lineup.
Two Hundred Twenty-Two Top Division Goals, Three Hundred Twenty-Five International Caps
Wythenshawe Veterans Over-35s are based in southern Manchester and play in the Cheshire-based Vets Division Top Division.
The squad list this season features nine former top-flight footballers, with a total nearly 1,800 Premier League appearances.
The elite team also contains over 220 Premier League scores and 325 international appearances.
They include Papiss Cisse, who scored 37 goals in over 100 appearances for Newcastle United after signing for them for nine million pounds from Bundesliga club SC Freiburg in 2012.
Cisse had his first appearance for Wythenshawe in their last home-field game versus defending title holders their rivals and netted every one of the six scores in a six-two win - including a 32-minute first-half triple.
Wythenshawe's roster for this campaign also includes ex- pros such as England and Liverpool striker Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley FC winger George Boyd, Everton forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic defender Maynor Figueroa, City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League title winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.
Together, the ex- top-flight footballers have claimed fifteen major trophies and transferred for total transfer fees of around £123 million.
Well-Known Figures and International Players
Stephen Ireland started playing for the team in pre-season this summer through close mate and present team teammate Blake Norton, and the former Irish player then asked additional ex-pros, who all compete in a weekly nine-a-side game, to participate.
Former Senegalese forward Oumar Niasse, who scored twelve scores in 65 top-flight games for the Toffees and still attends their matches at Goodison Park, also made his debut versus the opposition - who are located in Liverpool and use an Everton training kit as their strip.
"A mate Stephen said 'come and play, it's a laugh'," said Niasse.
"After that he told me we were facing a team from the city and the surprise I had when I noticed them sporting Everton kits - I say this is strange for me!
"If you still love football and you feel you can still do it, anywhere you can kick a ball, what are you going to choose?
"Those people who turn up and see are happy and to give someone's day if they watch us playing there and to ask us queries - it's really about the joy of us getting a place we can play, with organisation of course."
Such is the strength in depth at the club, Niasse had his first game at full-back.
"That's a bit unusual but then, I love sprinting and just move forward - I'm not staying back that much," he said.
"I tell my centre-back 'I'm not hanging back' and that I'm just going to keep running.
"The movement is what I'm after. It's enjoyable."
'Surreal Scenario
In addition to the forward's 6 goals on his first game, Stephen Ireland has netted 8 in 3 appearances for the side, while Boyd hit 5 on his first match and Lescott, a defender by position, notched a triple in one match up front.
Wythenshawe are leading of the Top Tier with three victories from 3 and a GD of +19.
One opponent, thirty-eight, who features on the flank for Collegiate OB, faced ex- Wigan defender Maynor Figueroa on Sunday - and had to tell his young boy who Heskey was.
Figueroa has played at 2 global tournaments for Honduras, in as well as playing in over 200 top-flight matches.
"The news was going round like wildfire they had these ex-Premier League players," said the player.
"I think I was a bit starstruck playing against Figueroa to be honest.
"Also Heskey got on and he's got 60-odd English caps.
"Our side competed well for a solid twenty minutes but then we had a player dismissed and it was tough.
"Our group literally have not ceased talking about it - I was calling my mother and sibling on the journey home.
"The opponents were all dead sound, shaking our hands after the match - it was like playing a bunch of regular guys.
"Now we can't wait for the second match."
'We'll Still Take the League'
Andy Kirby manages the opposition vets team, who won the Premier Division title last season, along with Paul Maguire.
"Our team went 1-0 ahead and had a