Discover the Weekend League Team With 1,800 Top-Flight Games
What can you boost a outstanding experienced squad that have won consecutive titles, featuring a double triumph boasting thirty wins from 32 matches?
Sign a group of ex- professionals who have played at the elite tier of club and global football as you target more honors.
A Manchester team boasts an non-professional veterans squad with nine ex- top-flight footballers in their current squad.
222 Premier League Scores, Three Hundred Twenty-Five Global Appearances
Wythenshawe Veterans Over-35s are based in south Manchester and compete in the Cheshire-based Vets Division Top Division.
Their lineup this campaign includes nine ex- Premier League players, with a combined over 1,800 Premier League appearances.
This star-studded team also boasts 222 top division goals and 325 global caps.
They include Papiss Cisse, who scored 37 scores in over 100 games for his former club after moving to them for Β£9m from Bundesliga club SC Freiburg in 2012.
He had his first appearance for the team in their last home match against defending title holders their rivals and netted all six scores in a 6-2 win - including a 32-minute opening period triple.
Wythenshawe's roster for this campaign also features former professionals such as England and Anfield forward Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley winger George Boyd, Everton striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic full-back Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League title winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.
In total, the former top-flight footballers have won 15 significant trophies and transferred for combined transfer sums of approximately Β£123m.
Well-Known Names and Global Players
Ireland began turning out for the side during preseason this summer through good mate and current Wythenshawe player Blake Norton, and the former Irish midfielder then invited other former professionals, who all compete in a midweek small-sided game, to participate.
Ex- Senegalese striker Niasse, who netted twelve scores in sixty-five Premier League matches for Everton and still attends their matches at Goodison Park, also made his first appearance against Collegiate OB - who are based in Liverpool and use an Blue warm-up gear as their uniform.
"My friend Stephen told me 'come and have a game, it's good fun'," commented the striker.
"Then he informed me we were facing a team from Liverpool and the surprise I had when I noticed them wearing Blue shirts - I thought this is wrong for me!
"When you still love the game and you feel you can still play, anywhere you can play, what are you going to do?
"The spectators who turn up and see are happy and to give a day if they see us competing there and to pose us queries - it's really about the pleasure of us having somewhere we can play, with structure of course."
So great is the strength in depth at the club, he made his debut at full-back.
"It's a bit unusual but then, I enjoy running and just move inside - I'm not defending that much," he added.
"I tell my defender 'I'm not staying' and that I'm just going to continue running.
"That running is what I'm seeking. It's enjoyable."
'Surreal Experience
In addition to the forward's six goals on his first game, Stephen Ireland has scored 8 in 3 appearances for Wythenshawe, while George Boyd hit five on his debut match and Lescott, a defender by position, notched a triple in one match up front.
Wythenshawe are top of the Top Division with three wins from 3 and a GD of +19.
Paul Barrow, thirty-eight, who plays on the flank for Collegiate OB, came up against ex- Wigan full-back Figueroa on the weekend - and had to tell his young boy who Heskey was.
Figueroa has appeared at 2 World Cups for his country, in as well as featuring in over two hundred Premier League matches.
"The news was spreading like wildfire they had these ex-Premier League players," said Barrow.
"I felt I was a bit awestruck playing against him to be honest.
"Also Heskey got on and he's got over 60 English appearances.
"Our side held our own for a good twenty mins but then we had a man sent off and it was tough.
"We really haven't stopped chatting about it - I was calling my mum and brother on the journey home.
"The opponents were all really nice, shaking our hands after the game - it was like playing a bunch of normal fellas.
"Now we are eager for the second fixture."
We Will Still Take the League'
Andy Kirby coaches the opposition vets side, who secured the Top Division championship last season, along with Paul Maguire.
"Our team scored 1-0 ahead and had a