Meet this Weekend League Club Boasting Nearly Two Thousand Top-Flight Matches
What can you improve a outstanding veteran squad that have won consecutive championships, featuring a league-cup double boasting 30 victories from 32 games?
Sign a collection of former pro players who have performed at the elite level of club football and global soccer as you pursue further silverware.
One Manchester side boasts an non-professional vets team with nine ex- top-flight players in their active roster.
Two Hundred Twenty-Two Premier League Scores, Three Hundred Twenty-Five International Appearances
The team Veterans Over-35s are located in south Manchester and compete in the Cheshire-based Vets League Premier Division.
Their squad list this season features 9 ex- Premier League players, with a total over 1,800 top-flight appearances.
The elite roster also includes over 220 top division scores and 325 global caps.
The squad feature Papiss Cisse, who netted thirty-seven scores in over 100 appearances for Newcastle United after joining them for nine million pounds from German league side SC Freiburg in 2012.
Cisse had his debut for the team in their last home-field match versus reigning title holders Collegiate Old Boys and netted all six goals in a six-two win - including a half-hour first-half triple.
Wythenshawe's roster for this season also includes ex- professionals such as English and Liverpool striker Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley winger George Boyd, Everton forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan defender Maynor Figueroa, City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League title winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.
Collectively, the former Premier League footballers have secured 15 big trophies and transferred for combined transfer sums of around £123 million.
Well-Known Figures and International Stars
Ireland began playing for the team during pre-season this summer through good mate and current team teammate Blake Norton, and the ex- Republic of Ireland player then asked other former professionals, who all play in a weekly nine-a-side match, to participate.
Ex- Senegalese forward Niasse, who netted twelve scores in sixty-five Premier League games for the Toffees and even now goes to their home games, also made his debut against Collegiate OB - who are located in Liverpool and wear an Blue training kit as their strip.
"My mate Stephen Ireland told me 'come and play, it's good fun'," commented Niasse.
"After that he informed me we were facing a side from Liverpool and the surprise I had when I saw them sporting Everton kits - I thought this is wrong for me!
"If you still love football and you know you can still play, wherever you can play, what are you going to choose?
"The people who come and see are pleased and to give someone's moment if they see us playing there and to ask us questions - it's more like the pleasure of us getting somewhere we can play, with organisation of course."
Such is the squad depth at the club, he made his first game at defender.
"That's a bit different but then, I enjoy running and just go forward - 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 continue running.
"That running is what I'm looking for. It's enjoyable."
'Surreal Feeling
In addition to Cisse's six scores on his first game, Stephen Ireland has scored eight in 3 appearances for the side, while George Boyd hit five on his debut match and Lescott, a centre-half by position, scored a triple in one match up front.
The team are top of the Premier Division with three wins from 3 and a GD of +19.
One opponent, 38, who plays on the wing for Collegiate OB, faced former Wigan defender Figueroa on the weekend - and had to tell his young boy who Emile Heskey was.
Figueroa has played at 2 global tournaments for his country, in addition to featuring in over 200 top-flight matches.
"It was spreading like wildfire they had all these ex-Premier League stars," remarked Barrow.
"I think I was a bit awestruck playing against him to be honest.
"Even Heskey got on and he's has over 60 English caps.
"We held our own for a solid twenty minutes but then we had a man dismissed and it was hard.
"Our group really have not stopped chatting about it - I was phoning my mother and brother on the way home.
"The opponents were all really nice, shaking our hands after the game - it was like facing a bunch of regular fellas.
"Now we can't wait for the second fixture."
We Will Still Take the League'
Andy Kirby manages the Collegiate veterans team, who secured the Top Division championship the previous campaign, along with his co-manager.
"We went 1-0 ahead and had a