Meet the Weekend Division Team Featuring Nearly Two Thousand Premier League Appearances
How do you improve a stellar veteran team that have won consecutive titles, including a double triumph boasting 30 victories from thirty-two games?
Sign a collection of ex- pro players who have performed at the highest level of club football and global soccer as you aim for further silverware.
One Greater Manchester side boasts an non-professional veterans team with 9 former Premier League footballers in their active lineup.
222 Premier League Goals, 325 International Appearances
Wythenshawe Vets Over 35s are based in southern Manchester and play in the Cheshire-based Veterans Division Premier Division.
Their lineup this campaign boasts nine former top-flight players, with a combined nearly 1,800 Premier League appearances.
The star-studded squad also contains over 220 top division goals and over 320 global appearances.
The squad include Papiss Cisse, who scored 37 scores in 117 appearances for Newcastle United after moving to them for £9m from German league club Freiburg in 2012.
He made his debut for Wythenshawe in their last home-field match against reigning title holders Collegiate Old Boys and scored every one of the six goals in a six-two victory - including a half-hour first-half hat-trick.
Wythenshawe's team for this campaign also includes ex- pros such as English and Anfield forward Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley FC winger George Boyd, Toffees forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan full-back Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight championship victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.
In total, the former top-flight footballers have won fifteen significant honors and transferred for combined transfer sums of around £123 million.
Well-Known Figures and International Stars
Stephen Ireland began turning out for the team during pre-season this season through good mate and current Wythenshawe teammate Blake Norton, and the former Republic of Ireland midfielder then invited additional ex-pros, who all compete in a weekly small-sided match, to join in.
Ex- Senegalese striker Oumar Niasse, who scored 12 scores in 65 Premier League games for the Toffees and still goes to their home games, also had his debut versus Collegiate OB - who are based in Liverpool and wear an Blue training kit as their strip.
"A mate Stephen said 'join and play, it's a laugh'," commented the striker.
"After that he told me we were facing a side from the city and the surprise I had when I noticed them sporting Everton shirts - I thought this is strange for me!
"If you still enjoy football and you know you can still do it, anywhere you can kick a ball, what are you going to choose?
"The spectators who come and watch are happy and to make someone's moment if they see us competing there and to pose us queries - it's more like the joy of us having somewhere we can play, with organisation of course."
So great is the strength in depth at the club, he made his first game at full-back.
"It's a bit different but then, I enjoy sprinting and just move forward - I'm not staying back that much," he added.
"I warn my centre-back 'I'm not staying' and that I'm just going to continue running.
"The running is what I'm seeking. It's enjoyable."
Unreal Scenario
Along with the forward's six goals on debut, Stephen Ireland has scored 8 in 3 appearances for Wythenshawe, while George Boyd scored 5 on his first match and Joleon Lescott, a centre-half by trade, notched a triple in one game up front.
The team are top of the Premier Division with 3 wins from three and a GD of +19.
Paul Barrow, 38, who plays on the wing for the opposition, came up against former Latics full-back Figueroa on the weekend - and had to tell his young boy who Heskey was.
Figueroa has played at two global tournaments for his country, in as well as playing in more than two hundred Premier League matches.
"The news was spreading like a rumor they had all these former top-flight players," said Barrow.
"I felt I was a bit awestruck facing Figueroa to be honest.
"Also Heskey got on and he's has 60-odd English appearances.
"Our side held our own for a good twenty mins but then we had a player dismissed and it was tough.
"Our group really have not ceased talking about it - I was calling my mum and sibling on the journey home.
"They were all really nice, shaking our hands after the game - it was like playing a bunch of normal guys.
"Now we can't wait for the return match."
We Will Still Take the Title'
Andy Kirby coaches the Collegiate veterans team, who won the Premier Tier title last season, along with his co-manager.
"Our team scored one-nil up and had a