Meet the Weekend League Squad Boasting Nearly Two Thousand Top-Flight Appearances
How do you enhance a outstanding experienced team that have claimed consecutive titles, featuring a league-cup double boasting 30 wins from 32 games?
Sign a group of ex- pro players that have competed at the highest tier of club football and global soccer as you target further trophies.
One Greater Manchester side boasts an non-professional vets squad with nine ex- top-flight players in their current squad.
222 Premier League Scores, 325 International Appearances
Wythenshawe Veterans Over 35s are based in south Manchester and play in the Cheshire-based Vets League Premier Division.
The squad list this campaign includes 9 ex- Premier League footballers, with a total 1,801 top-flight appearances.
This star-studded roster also includes over 220 top division scores and 325 global caps.
They feature Papiss Cisse, who netted thirty-seven goals in 117 games for his former club after joining them for £9m from Bundesliga side Freiburg in January 2012.
Cisse made his debut for the team in their most recent home-field match versus defending title holders Collegiate Old Boys and netted every one of the six goals in a six-two win - including a 32-minute opening period hat-trick.
The team for this campaign also features former professionals such as England and Liverpool striker Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley midfielder George Boyd, Toffees striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan full-back Maynor Figueroa, City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight title winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.
Together, the former top-flight players have claimed fifteen major trophies and moved for total transfer fees of about £123 million.
Famous Figures and Global Players
Ireland began turning out for the team during preseason this summer through close mate and current team player Blake Norton, and the former Irish player then invited other ex-pros, who all play in a midweek nine-a-side match, to participate.
Ex- Senegal forward Niasse, who netted 12 goals in sixty-five top-flight games for the Toffees and still attends their home games, also made his debut against Collegiate OB - who are based in Liverpool and wear an Blue training kit as their uniform.
"A friend Stephen said 'join and have a game, it's a laugh'," commented the striker.
"After that he told me we were playing a team from the city and the surprise I had when I noticed them sporting Everton shirts - I say this is strange for me!
"When you still enjoy the game and you feel you can still play, anywhere you can play, what are you going to choose?
"Those fans who turn up and see are happy and to give someone's day if they watch us playing there and to pose us questions - it's more like the pleasure of us having somewhere we can play, with organisation of course."
So great is the bench strength at the club, Niasse made his debut at full-back.
"It's a little different but then, I enjoy running and just move forward - I'm not defending that much," he added.
"I warn my defender 'I'm not hanging back' and that I'm just going to continue attacking.
"The movement is what I'm seeking. It's good fun."
Dreamlike' Feeling
In addition to Cisse's 6 goals on his first game, Stephen Ireland has netted eight in three appearances for Wythenshawe, while Boyd hit five on his first match and Joleon Lescott, a centre-half by trade, notched a triple in one match up front.
The team are top of the Top Tier with three victories from three and a GD of +19.
One opponent, thirty-eight, who plays on the flank for Collegiate OB, came up against ex- Wigan defender Maynor Figueroa on Sunday - and had to tell his young son who Emile Heskey was.
Figueroa has appeared at 2 global tournaments for Honduras, in addition to playing in over 200 Premier League matches.
"The news was going round like wildfire they had these former top-flight players," said the player.
"I felt I was a little starstruck playing against him to be honest.
"Even Emile [Heskey] came on and he's got 60-odd English appearances.
"We held our own for a solid 20 minutes but then we had a man sent off and it was hard.
"Our group literally haven't stopped talking about it - I was phoning my mother and brother on the way home.
"They were all dead sound, shaking our hands after the game - it was like facing a bunch of regular guys.
"Now we can't wait for the return fixture."
'We'll Still Take the League'
Andy Kirby coaches the opposition vets side, who secured the Top Division title last season, along with his co-manager.
"Our team went one-nil up and had a