Meet the Weekend League Squad Boasting 1,800 English Top Division Matches
How can you enhance a outstanding veteran team that have won back-to-back championships, featuring a double triumph with thirty wins from 32 games?
Recruit a group of former pro players that have competed at the highest tier of club football and international football as you target additional honors.
One Greater Manchester club has an non-professional veterans squad with nine ex- Premier League players in their current squad.
222 Premier League Goals, 325 Global Caps
The team Veterans Over-35s are located in southern Manchester and play in the Cheshire Vets Division Premier Division.
The lineup this campaign features 9 ex- Premier League footballers, with a combined nearly 1,800 Premier League appearances.
The star-studded team also contains over 220 Premier League scores and over 320 international caps.
They feature Papiss Cisse, who scored thirty-seven goals in over 100 games for his former club after moving to them for £9m from German league side Freiburg in 2012.
Cisse made his debut for the team in their last home-field match against reigning champions Collegiate Old Boys and netted all six scores in a 6-2 win - featuring a 32-minute opening period hat-trick.
The roster for this season also features former pros such as England and Anfield striker Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley midfielder George Boyd, Everton striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic full-back Maynor Figueroa, City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight title victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.
Together, the former top-flight footballers have secured 15 significant trophies and moved for total transfer sums of about £123 million.
Famous Names and Global Players
Ireland began playing for the team during preseason this summer through close friend and present Wythenshawe teammate Blake Norton, and the ex- Irish player then asked other ex-pros, who all play in a weekly small-sided game, to participate.
Former Senegal striker Oumar Niasse, who netted twelve scores in 65 Premier League games for Everton and even now attends their matches at Goodison Park, also had his debut against the opposition - who are based in the city and wear an Everton training kit as their uniform.
"My friend Stephen said 'join and have a game, it's a laugh'," commented Niasse.
"After that he informed me we were playing a team from Liverpool and the shock I had when I noticed them sporting Everton kits - I say this is wrong for me!
"When you still love the game and you feel you can still do it, wherever you can kick a ball, what are you going to choose?
"The fans who turn up and watch are happy and to make a moment if they see us competing there and to pose us queries - it's really about the pleasure of us getting somewhere we can play, with organisation of course."
Such is the bench strength at Wythenshawe, Niasse made his first game at defender.
"That's a little different but then, I enjoy running and just go forward - I'm not staying back that much," he said.
"I warn my defender 'I'm not staying' and that I'm just going to continue attacking.
"The running is what I'm looking for. It's enjoyable."
Dreamlike' Scenario
Along with Cisse's six goals on his first game, Stephen Ireland has scored eight in three games for Wythenshawe, while George Boyd hit 5 on his debut appearance and Lescott, a centre-half by position, notched a triple in one match as a striker.
Wythenshawe are top of the Premier Division with three wins from 3 and a GD of plus nineteen.
One opponent, 38, who features on the flank for Collegiate OB, faced ex- Latics full-back Figueroa on Sunday - and had to tell his young boy who Heskey was.
Figueroa has appeared at 2 global tournaments for his country, in as well as playing in over 200 top-flight matches.
"The news was spreading like a rumor they had these former top-flight stars," remarked the player.
"I felt I was a little 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 solid twenty minutes but then we had a man dismissed and it was hard.
"Our group literally haven't stopped talking about it - I was phoning my mother and sibling on the way home.
"They were all friendly, shaking our hands after the match - it was like facing a group of normal guys.
"Now we are eager for the second match."
'We'll Still Take the Title'
The manager coaches the opposition veterans side, who secured the Premier Tier championship last season, together with his co-manager.
"Our team went one-nil ahead and had a