Meet the Weekend League Team Boasting Nearly Two Thousand Top-Flight Games
What do you improve a outstanding veteran team that have won consecutive championships, featuring a double triumph with 30 wins from thirty-two matches?
Recruit a collection of former pro players that have performed at the highest tier of club and international football as you target additional trophies.
A Greater Manchester side has an non-professional veterans squad with nine former Premier League footballers in their current lineup.
Two Hundred Twenty-Two Top Division Scores, Three Hundred Twenty-Five Global Appearances
Wythenshawe Veterans Over 35s are situated in southern the city and play in the Cheshire-based Veterans League Top Tier.
The squad list this season includes nine ex- top-flight players, with a total 1,801 Premier League appearances.
This elite team also boasts over 220 top division scores and 325 international appearances.
They include Papiss Cisse, who scored 37 goals in over 100 games for Newcastle United after moving to them for £9m from German league side Freiburg in 2012.
Cisse made his debut for the team in their most recent home-field game against reigning champions Collegiate Old Boys and netted all six scores in a 6-2 victory - featuring a half-hour opening period triple.
Wythenshawe's team for this campaign also includes ex- pros such as English and Anfield forward Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley winger George Boyd, Toffees forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic full-back Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League title winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.
Collectively, the former top-flight players have claimed fifteen major trophies and transferred for total transfer fees of about £123m.
Famous Figures and International Players
Stephen Ireland began playing for the team during preseason this summer through good friend and present Wythenshawe player Blake Norton, and the ex- Republic of Ireland player then asked other ex-pros, who all play in a weekly small-sided game, to participate.
Ex- Senegal striker Oumar Niasse, who scored twelve goals in sixty-five Premier League matches for Everton and even now goes to their home games, also made his first appearance versus Collegiate OB - who are located in the city and use an Blue warm-up gear as their strip.
"A mate Stephen said 'come and have a game, it's enjoyable'," commented the striker.
"Then he told me we were playing a team from the city and the shock I had when I saw them sporting Everton shirts - I thought this is wrong for me!
"If you still love the game and you feel you can still do it, anywhere you can kick a ball, what are you going to choose?
"Those fans who turn up and see are pleased and to give someone's day if they see us playing there and to ask us questions - it's really about the joy of us getting a place we can enjoy football, with organisation of course."
So great is the bench strength at the club, Niasse made his debut at full-back.
"That's a little different but then, I enjoy running and just go inside - I'm not staying back that much," he added.
"I warn my defender 'I'm not hanging back' and that I'm just going to keep running.
"The running is what I'm seeking. It's enjoyable."
Unreal Scenario
Along with the forward's 6 goals on debut, Stephen Ireland has scored eight in 3 appearances for Wythenshawe, while Boyd hit five on his debut match and Joleon Lescott, a centre-half by trade, notched a triple in one match up front.
Wythenshawe are top of the Top Tier with three victories from 3 and a GD of plus nineteen.
Paul Barrow, thirty-eight, who features on the flank for Collegiate OB, came up against former Latics full-back Figueroa on Sunday - and had to tell his nine-year-old son who Heskey was.
He has played at two World Cups for his country, in as well as featuring in more than 200 Premier League games.
"The news was going round like wildfire they had these ex-Premier League players," said the player.
"I think I was a little awestruck facing Figueroa to be honest.
"Also Emile [Heskey] got on and he's got over 60 England caps.
"We held our own for a good 20 minutes but then we had a player dismissed and it was tough.
"We literally have not ceased talking about it - I was calling my mother and sibling on the way home.
"The opponents were all dead sound, shaking our hands after the match - it was like facing a group of normal fellas.
"Now we are eager for the return match."
We Will Still Take the Title'
The manager manages the opposition vets team, who secured the Top Division championship the previous campaign, along with Paul Maguire.
"We went 1-0 ahead and had a