Meet this Weekend Division Squad With Over 1,800 Premier League Matches
How do you boost a outstanding veteran side that have claimed back-to-back titles, featuring a league-cup double with thirty victories from thirty-two games?
Bring in a group of ex- professionals that have performed at the highest level of club football and international football as you pursue further trophies.
One Greater Manchester side boasts an non-professional veterans team with nine ex- Premier League players in their present roster.
Two Hundred Twenty-Two Premier League Goals, Three Hundred Twenty-Five Global Caps
Wythenshawe Veterans Over 35s are based in south the city and compete in the Cheshire-based Veterans Division Top Tier.
Their roster this campaign boasts 9 ex- top-flight players, with a total over 1,800 elite matches.
The star-studded team also contains 222 top division scores and over 320 global caps.
They include Papiss Cisse, who netted 37 scores in over 100 appearances for his former club after moving to them for £9m from Bundesliga side SC Freiburg in 2012.
Cisse made his first appearance for the team in their last home-field match versus reigning title holders Collegiate Old Boys and netted every one of the six scores in a 6-2 victory - including a half-hour opening period hat-trick.
Wythenshawe's roster for this campaign also features former professionals such as English and Liverpool forward Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley FC midfielder George Boyd, Toffees striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic full-back Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight title victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.
Collectively, the ex- top-flight players have secured 15 significant trophies and transferred for combined transfer sums of around £123 million.
Household Names and International Stars
Ireland began playing for the team during pre-season this summer through close friend and current Wythenshawe player Blake Norton, and the ex- Irish player then asked other ex-pros, who all play in a weekly small-sided match, to participate.
Former Senegalese striker Oumar Niasse, who netted twelve goals in sixty-five Premier League games for Everton and still attends their home games, also made his first appearance versus Collegiate OB - who are located in Liverpool and use an Everton training kit as their strip.
"My friend Stephen said 'join and play, it's good fun'," said the striker.
"Then he informed me we were facing a team from Liverpool and the surprise I had when I saw them sporting Blue kits - I say this is wrong for me!
"When you still love the game and you feel you can still do it, wherever you can kick a ball, what are you going to choose?
"Those spectators who come and see are happy and to give a moment if they watch us playing there and to ask us questions - it's more like the pleasure of us getting somewhere we can play, with organisation of course."
So great is the squad depth at the club, Niasse made his first game at full-back.
"It's a bit unusual but then, I enjoy sprinting and just go forward - I'm not staying back that much," he said.
"I warn my centre-back 'I'm not hanging back' and that I'm just going to continue running.
"The running is what I'm after. It's good fun."
'Surreal Scenario
In addition to the forward's six goals on his first game, Ireland has netted eight in 3 games for Wythenshawe, while George Boyd hit five on his debut match and Lescott, a centre-half by trade, scored a triple in one game as a striker.
Wythenshawe are leading of the Top Division with three wins from three and a goal difference of +19.
Paul Barrow, thirty-eight, who features on the wing for Collegiate OB, faced ex- Latics full-back Maynor Figueroa on the weekend - and had to explain his nine-year-old boy who Emile Heskey was.
He has appeared at 2 World Cups for his country, in addition to featuring in more than 200 top-flight games.
"It was going round like wildfire they had all these former top-flight players," remarked Barrow.
"I think I was a bit awestruck facing Figueroa to be honest.
"Even Heskey came on and he's has 60-odd England appearances.
"Our side competed well for a solid 20 mins but then we had a player dismissed and it was hard.
"We really haven't stopped chatting about it - I was calling my mum and brother on the way home.
"They were all friendly, 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 Take the Title'
Andy Kirby coaches the Collegiate vets team, who secured the Premier Tier championship last season, along with his co-manager.
"We went 1-0 ahead and had a