Introduce this Sunday Division Club Featuring Over 1,800 Premier League Appearances
What do you enhance a excellent experienced team who have claimed back-to-back championships, including a league-cup double boasting 30 victories from thirty-two games?
Sign a collection of ex- pro players that have competed at the top level of club football and global soccer as you target additional honors.
A Greater Manchester team has an amateur veterans squad with nine ex- Premier League footballers in their active roster.
222 Top Division Goals, 325 International Caps
Wythenshawe Veterans Over 35s are situated in southern Manchester and play in the Cheshire Vets League Top Tier.
Their lineup this campaign includes 9 ex- top-flight players, with a collective nearly 1,800 Premier League matches.
The star-studded squad also boasts 222 top division goals and over 320 international appearances.
They feature Papiss Cisse, who notched thirty-seven goals in 117 appearances for his former club after joining them for £9m from German league club SC Freiburg in 2012.
Cisse made his debut for the team in their last home-field game versus defending champions Collegiate Old Boys and netted every one of the six goals in a six-two victory - featuring a half-hour first-half hat-trick.
Wythenshawe's roster for this season also includes ex- pros such as English and Anfield striker Emile Heskey, Hull City 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 championship victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.
In total, the ex- top-flight footballers have secured fifteen major honors and transferred for combined transfer sums of about £123 million.
Household Figures and Global Players
Ireland started playing for the side during pre-season this season through good friend and present team player Blake Norton, and the ex- Republic of Ireland midfielder then invited other ex-pros, who all compete in a midweek small-sided match, to join in.
Ex- Senegal forward Oumar Niasse, who scored 12 goals in sixty-five Premier League matches for Everton and even now goes to their matches at Goodison Park, also made his debut against Collegiate OB - who are located in Liverpool and use an Everton warm-up gear as their strip.
"A mate Stephen Ireland said 'join and have a game, it's good fun'," commented Niasse.
"Then he informed me we were facing a team from Liverpool and the surprise I had when I saw them sporting Blue kits - I thought this is strange for me!
"If you still love football and you know you can still play, anywhere you can play, what are you going to choose?
"Those people who turn up and watch are pleased and to make someone's moment if they watch us competing there and to ask us queries - it's more like the joy of us having a place we can play, with structure of course."
Such is the strength in depth at the club, he made his debut at defender.
"That's a little different but then, I enjoy sprinting and just move forward - I'm not defending that much," he added.
"I tell my defender 'I'm not hanging back' and that I'm just going to continue running.
"The movement is what I'm seeking. It's enjoyable."
Unreal Feeling
In addition to Cisse's 6 scores on debut, Ireland has scored eight in three games for Wythenshawe, while Boyd scored five on his debut match and Lescott, a defender by position, notched a triple in one game up front.
The team are top of the Top Division with three victories from three and a goal difference of +19.
Paul Barrow, 38, who features on the wing for the opposition, came up against ex- Wigan full-back Maynor Figueroa on Sunday - and had to explain his young boy who Heskey was.
Figueroa has appeared at two global tournaments for his country, in as well as featuring in more than two hundred Premier League games.
"The news was going round like a rumor they had all these former top-flight stars," said Barrow.
"I think I was a bit awestruck playing against Figueroa to be honest.
"Also Heskey got on and he's has 60-odd English appearances.
"Our side competed well for a solid twenty minutes but then we had a player sent off and it was tough.
"We literally haven't stopped chatting about it - I was phoning my mum and brother on the journey home.
"They were all really nice, shaking our hands after the game - it was like facing a bunch of regular fellas.
"Now we can't wait for the second fixture."
'We'll Still Take the Title'
Andy Kirby coaches the Collegiate veterans side, who secured the Premier Division title the previous campaign, together with his co-manager.
"Our team went 1-0 ahead and had a