Discover the Sunday League Squad With Over 1,800 English Top Division Appearances
What can you improve a stellar veteran side who have secured consecutive championships, including a league-cup double with thirty wins from thirty-two games?
Recruit a group of ex- professionals who have competed at the highest tier of club football and global football as you aim for additional honors.
A Manchester team has an amateur veterans squad with nine ex- Premier League footballers in their active roster.
222 Top Division Goals, Three Hundred Twenty-Five Global Caps
Wythenshawe Vets Over 35s are located in southern Manchester and play in the Cheshire-based Veterans League Top Division.
The squad list this campaign includes 9 ex- top-flight players, with a total nearly 1,800 Premier League games.
The star-studded squad also includes over 220 Premier League scores and 325 international appearances.
The squad include Papiss Cisse, who notched thirty-seven goals in over 100 games for his former club after signing for them for nine million pounds from German league club SC Freiburg in 2012.
He had his first appearance for the team in their most recent home match against defending title holders their rivals and netted all six scores in a six-two win - including a half-hour opening period triple.
The team for this campaign also features former pros such as England and Liverpool striker Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley winger George Boyd, Toffees striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic defender Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight championship victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.
Collectively, the ex- Premier League footballers have secured 15 significant honors and transferred for total transfer sums of approximately £123m.
Household Names and Global Stars
Stephen Ireland started turning out for the side during preseason this summer through good mate and present team teammate Blake Norton, and the former Irish player then asked additional ex-pros, who all play in a weekly nine-a-side match, to join in.
Former Senegalese forward Niasse, who scored 12 scores in 65 top-flight games for Everton and still goes to their matches at Goodison Park, also had his debut against the opposition - who are based in the city and use an Everton training kit as their strip.
"My mate Stephen told me 'come and have a game, it's good fun'," commented Niasse.
"Then he informed me we were playing a side from the city and the surprise I had when I noticed them sporting Blue shirts - I say this is strange for me!
"If you still enjoy football and you feel you can still play, anywhere you can play, what are you going to do?
"The spectators who come and see are happy and to make someone's moment if they see us playing there and to ask us queries - it's more like the pleasure of us having a place we can play, with organisation of course."
Such is the bench strength at Wythenshawe, Niasse had his debut at full-back.
"That's a bit different but then, I love sprinting and just go forward - I'm not defending that much," he said.
"I tell my defender 'I'm not hanging back' and that I'm just going to keep running.
"That running is what I'm seeking. It's good fun."
'Surreal Scenario
In addition to the forward's six scores on his first game, Stephen Ireland has netted 8 in 3 games for the side, while Boyd hit five on his debut appearance and Joleon Lescott, a centre-half by trade, scored a hat-trick in one game up front.
The team are top of the Top Tier with three victories from three and a GD of +19.
One opponent, 38, who plays on the flank for the opposition, faced former Wigan defender Figueroa on the weekend - and had to explain his nine-year-old boy who Heskey was.
Figueroa has played at two global tournaments for Honduras, in as well as playing in more than two hundred Premier League matches.
"The news was going round like wildfire they had all these former top-flight players," remarked the player.
"I felt I was a little starstruck facing Figueroa to be honest.
"Also Emile [Heskey] came on and he's has 60-odd England appearances.
"Our side competed well for a good twenty minutes but then we had a man sent off and it was hard.
"Our group literally haven't stopped talking about it - I was calling my mum and brother on the journey home.
"The opponents were all dead sound, shaking our hands after the match - it was like playing a group of normal fellas.
"Now we are eager for the second match."
We Will Still Win the League'
The manager manages the Collegiate veterans team, who secured the Premier Division championship last season, along with his co-manager.
"We scored 1-0 up and had a