Meet this Weekend Division Squad Boasting Over 1,800 Top-Flight Games
What can you boost a outstanding veteran side that have won consecutive titles, including a league-cup double boasting 30 victories from thirty-two games?
Bring in a group of former pro players who have played at the elite tier of club and global soccer as you pursue more silverware.
One Manchester side boasts an amateur veterans squad with 9 ex- top-flight footballers in their current roster.
222 Top Division Goals, Three Hundred Twenty-Five Global Appearances
Wythenshawe Veterans Over-35s are situated in southern Manchester and play in the Cheshire-based Veterans Division Premier Tier.
The squad list this season includes nine ex- top-flight players, with a combined 1,801 elite games.
This elite roster also includes over 220 top division goals and 325 international appearances.
They feature Papiss Cisse, who netted 37 goals in over 100 games for Newcastle United after signing for them for £9m from Bundesliga club Freiburg in January 2012.
Cisse made his first appearance for the team in their last home game against reigning title holders their rivals and netted all six scores in a 6-2 win - including a half-hour first-half hat-trick.
The roster for this campaign also features ex- professionals such as English and Liverpool striker Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley FC midfielder George Boyd, Everton striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan full-back Maynor Figueroa, City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight championship winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.
Together, the former top-flight footballers have claimed 15 major trophies and transferred for total transfer sums of approximately £123 million.
Famous Figures and International Players
Stephen Ireland started playing for the team during pre-season this summer through good friend and current team player Blake Norton, and the ex- Republic of Ireland player then invited other former professionals, who all compete in a midweek nine-a-side game, to participate.
Former Senegal striker Oumar Niasse, who netted twelve goals in sixty-five top-flight games for the Toffees and still goes to their matches at Goodison Park, also had his debut against the opposition - who are based in the city and wear an Everton warm-up gear as their uniform.
"A mate Stephen said 'join and have a game, it's good fun'," said Niasse.
"After that he told me we were facing 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 enjoy the game and you know you can still play, wherever you can play, what are you going to choose?
"The fans who turn up and see are pleased and to give someone's moment if they see us playing there and to ask us questions - it's more like the pleasure of us having a place we can enjoy football, with organisation of course."
Such is the squad depth at the club, he had his first game at full-back.
"That's a bit unusual but then, I enjoy running and just go inside - I'm not defending that much," he said.
"I warn my defender 'I'm not hanging back' and that I'm just going to keep running.
"That running is what I'm looking for. It's enjoyable."
'Surreal Feeling
Along with the forward's six goals on his first game, Stephen Ireland has scored 8 in three games for Wythenshawe, while George Boyd scored 5 on his first match and Lescott, a defender by position, notched a hat-trick in one game as a striker.
The team are leading of the Top Tier with 3 wins from 3 and a goal difference of plus nineteen.
Paul Barrow, thirty-eight, who features on the wing for the opposition, came up against ex- Latics full-back Maynor Figueroa on the weekend - and had to explain his nine-year-old boy who Heskey was.
Figueroa has appeared at 2 global tournaments for his country, in as well as featuring in more than 200 Premier League matches.
"The news was going round like wildfire they had all these ex-Premier League stars," said Barrow.
"I think I was a bit starstruck playing against him to be honest.
"Also Heskey came on and he's has over 60 English caps.
"Our side competed well for a good 20 minutes but then we had a player dismissed and it was tough.
"Our group literally haven't ceased talking about it - I was calling my mum and sibling on the way home.
"The opponents were all friendly, 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 Will Still Win the League'
Andy Kirby manages the Collegiate vets team, who won the Top Division championship last season, along with his co-manager.
"We scored one-nil up and had a