Discover the Weekend League Team Boasting 1,800 English Top Division Games
How can you boost a outstanding experienced side that have claimed back-to-back titles, including a league-cup double with 30 wins from 32 matches?
Bring in a group of ex- pro players who have played at the highest level of club football and international football as you target more honors.
One Manchester side boasts an non-professional vets team with 9 ex- top-flight players in their current lineup.
222 Premier League Goals, Three Hundred Twenty-Five International Caps
The team Veterans Over-35s are located in southern the city and play in the Cheshire-based Veterans Division Premier Tier.
Their lineup this campaign features nine ex- Premier League footballers, with a collective over 1,800 Premier League appearances.
The high-profile roster also contains 222 Premier League goals and 325 global appearances.
They include Papiss Cisse, who scored thirty-seven goals in over 100 appearances for his former club after signing for them for nine million pounds from Bundesliga club Freiburg in 2012.
He made his debut for Wythenshawe in their last home-field match versus defending title holders Collegiate Old Boys and scored all six goals in a six-two victory - featuring a 32-minute first-half triple.
The roster for this campaign also features ex- pros such as England and Anfield forward Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley midfielder George Boyd, Toffees striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan defender Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League title victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.
In total, the ex- Premier League footballers have claimed fifteen major trophies and moved for total transfer sums of approximately £123 million.
Famous Names and International Players
Ireland started turning out for the team during preseason this season through good friend and present Wythenshawe player Blake Norton, and the former Irish midfielder then invited additional ex-pros, who all play in a midweek small-sided game, to join in.
Former Senegal striker Oumar Niasse, who scored twelve goals in 65 Premier League games for Everton and still goes to their home games, also had his first appearance versus Collegiate OB - who are based in Liverpool and wear an Everton warm-up gear as their uniform.
"My friend Stephen Ireland told me 'come and play, it's a laugh'," commented Niasse.
"Then he told me we were facing a team from Liverpool and the shock I had when I saw them sporting Everton kits - I say this is strange for me!
"If you still enjoy the game and you feel you can still do it, wherever you can kick a ball, what are you going to choose?
"Those fans who come and watch are happy and to make a day if they see 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 bench strength at Wythenshawe, he made his debut at defender.
"It's a bit different but then, I love running and just go forward - I'm not staying back that much," he added.
"I tell 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."
Dreamlike' Feeling
Along with Cisse's 6 scores on debut, Stephen Ireland has netted 8 in 3 games for Wythenshawe, while George Boyd scored 5 on his debut match and Lescott, a centre-half by position, notched a hat-trick in one game as a striker.
The team are top of the Premier Division with three victories from 3 and a GD of plus nineteen.
Paul Barrow, thirty-eight, who plays on the wing for the opposition, came up against ex- Latics full-back Figueroa on Sunday - and had to explain his nine-year-old boy who Heskey was.
He has appeared at 2 global tournaments for Honduras, in addition to playing in over 200 Premier League matches.
"The news was spreading like wildfire they had all these ex-Premier League players," said the player.
"I felt I was a bit awestruck playing against Figueroa to be honest.
"Even Emile [Heskey] got on and he's has 60-odd England appearances.
"We competed well for a good twenty mins but then we had a player dismissed and it was tough.
"Our group really haven't stopped talking about it - I was phoning my mother and sibling on the journey home.
"They were all really nice, shaking our hands after the match - it was like facing a bunch of regular fellas.
"Now we are eager for the return match."
'We'll Still Win the League'
Andy Kirby manages the opposition veterans team, who won the Premier Tier championship the previous campaign, together with Paul Maguire.
"We went one-nil ahead and had a