Introduce this Weekend League Team With Over 1,800 Premier League Matches
What do you enhance a stellar experienced team that have claimed back-to-back championships, including a league-cup double with 30 victories from thirty-two games?
Bring in a group of ex- pro players who have competed at the top tier of club football and global soccer as you pursue additional silverware.
One Manchester team boasts an non-professional vets team with nine former Premier League players in their present squad.
Two Hundred Twenty-Two Top Division Scores, Three Hundred Twenty-Five International Caps
The team Veterans Over-35s are situated in southern the city and compete in the Cheshire Veterans League Top Tier.
The roster this season includes nine ex- Premier League footballers, with a collective over 1,800 elite games.
The high-profile roster also boasts 222 top division goals and over 320 international caps.
The squad include Papiss Cisse, who notched thirty-seven goals in 117 games for his former club after moving to them for £9m from German league side Freiburg in 2012.
Cisse made his first appearance for the team in their most recent home-field game against defending champions their rivals and scored all six goals in a 6-2 victory - featuring a half-hour opening period triple.
The squad for this season also features former pros such as England and Anfield forward Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley FC winger George Boyd, Toffees striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic full-back Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight title winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.
Collectively, the former Premier League players have claimed 15 major honors and moved for combined transfer sums of around £123m.
Famous Names and Global Players
Stephen Ireland began turning out for the team during pre-season this summer through close mate and present Wythenshawe teammate Blake Norton, and the former Republic of Ireland midfielder then invited additional former professionals, who all play in a weekly small-sided match, to join in.
Ex- Senegalese forward Oumar Niasse, who netted 12 scores in 65 top-flight games for Everton and still goes to their matches at Goodison Park, also had his first appearance versus the opposition - who are based in the city and wear an Blue warm-up gear as their uniform.
"My mate Stephen told me 'join and have a game, it's a laugh'," commented Niasse.
"Then he informed me we were playing a side from Liverpool and the shock I had when I saw them wearing Blue kits - I say this is wrong for me!
"When you still enjoy football and you feel you can still do it, wherever you can play, what are you going to choose?
"The people who turn up and watch are happy and to make someone's day if they watch us playing there and to ask us queries - it's more like the pleasure of us getting a place we can enjoy football, with organisation of course."
Such is the strength in depth at the club, Niasse had his first game at full-back.
"It's a little different but then, I love sprinting and just go inside - I'm not staying back that much," he said.
"I tell my centre-back 'I'm not staying' and that I'm just going to keep running.
"That running is what I'm seeking. It's enjoyable."
Unreal Feeling
In addition to the forward's 6 goals on his first game, Ireland has scored eight in 3 appearances for Wythenshawe, while George Boyd hit 5 on his first match and Joleon Lescott, a centre-half by position, notched a hat-trick in one game as a striker.
The team are top of the Top Tier with three wins from 3 and a GD of plus nineteen.
One opponent, thirty-eight, who features on the wing for the opposition, faced former Latics defender Maynor Figueroa on the weekend - and had to tell his nine-year-old boy who Heskey was.
Figueroa has played at 2 World Cups for Honduras, in addition to playing in more than two hundred Premier League matches.
"The news was going round like a rumor they had all these ex-Premier League stars," said the player.
"I felt I was a little starstruck playing against Figueroa to be honest.
"Also Emile [Heskey] got on and he's got over 60 England caps.
"We held our own for a good twenty minutes but then we had a man dismissed and it was tough.
"We literally have not ceased talking about it - I was phoning my mum and sibling on the journey home.
"They were all friendly, shaking our hands after the match - it was like playing a bunch of normal fellas.
"Now we can't wait for the return fixture."
'We'll Still Take the Title'
Andy Kirby coaches the opposition vets side, who won the Premier Tier championship the previous campaign, along with his co-manager.
"We went one-nil ahead and had a