Discover the Weekend League Club Boasting Nearly Two Thousand English Top Division Appearances
How do you boost a stellar experienced team that have secured back-to-back titles, featuring a league-cup double boasting 30 wins from thirty-two games?
Recruit a group of former professionals who have played at the highest tier of club and international football as you pursue more trophies.
One Manchester club boasts an non-professional vets squad with 9 ex- Premier League footballers in their present roster.
Two Hundred Twenty-Two Top Division Goals, 325 Global Caps
Wythenshawe Veterans Over-35s are based in south Manchester and play in the Cheshire-based Veterans Division Top Tier.
The roster this campaign boasts 9 former Premier League footballers, with a total 1,801 Premier League games.
This star-studded roster also contains over 220 top division goals and over 320 international caps.
They feature Papiss Cisse, who netted 37 scores in over 100 appearances for Newcastle United after joining them for nine million pounds from German league club Freiburg in January 2012.
He had his debut for Wythenshawe in their last home-field match versus reigning title holders Collegiate Old Boys and scored every one of the six scores in a 6-2 victory - featuring a 32-minute opening period triple.
Wythenshawe's roster for this campaign also features former professionals such as English and Liverpool forward Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley FC midfielder George Boyd, Everton forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic defender Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League title winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.
Together, the former top-flight footballers have claimed 15 major honors and moved for total transfer sums of approximately £123 million.
Well-Known Figures and Global Stars
Stephen Ireland began playing for the side in pre-season this summer through good friend and current team player Blake Norton, and the former Irish player then invited additional ex-pros, who all compete in a midweek small-sided match, to participate.
Ex- Senegal striker Niasse, who netted 12 scores in sixty-five top-flight games for Everton and even now attends their home games, also made his debut versus Collegiate OB - who are based in the city and use an Everton warm-up gear as their strip.
"A mate Stephen Ireland told me 'come and play, it's enjoyable'," said Niasse.
"Then he informed me we were facing a team from the city and the surprise I had when I saw them sporting Blue kits - I say this is wrong for me!
"If you still enjoy the game and you feel you can still do it, anywhere you can play, what are you going to do?
"Those spectators who turn up and watch are happy and to give someone's day if they see us playing there and to pose us questions - it's really about the pleasure of us getting a place we can enjoy football, with organisation of course."
So great is the bench strength at Wythenshawe, he made his debut at defender.
"It's a bit unusual but then, I love sprinting and just go inside - I'm not defending that much," he added.
"I warn my defender 'I'm not staying' and that I'm just going to keep attacking.
"That running is what I'm seeking. It's good fun."
'Surreal Scenario
In addition to the forward's six goals on his first game, Ireland has scored eight in 3 games for the side, while Boyd hit five on his debut appearance and Lescott, a centre-half by trade, notched a hat-trick in one game up front.
The team are leading of the Premier Division with 3 victories from 3 and a GD of plus nineteen.
One opponent, thirty-eight, who features on the flank for the opposition, came up against ex- Latics defender Maynor Figueroa on Sunday - and had to tell his nine-year-old boy who Heskey was.
Figueroa has appeared at 2 global tournaments for Honduras, in addition to playing in over two hundred top-flight matches.
"It was spreading like wildfire they had all these ex-Premier League players," remarked the player.
"I felt I was a little starstruck playing against him to be honest.
"Also Emile [Heskey] came on and he's got 60-odd England caps.
"We competed well for a solid 20 minutes but then we had a man dismissed and it was tough.
"We really haven't ceased talking about it - I was calling my mum and brother on the way home.
"The opponents were all dead sound, shaking our hands after the game - it was like playing a bunch of normal fellas.
"Now we can't wait for the return match."
'We'll Still Win the Title'
Andy Kirby manages the Collegiate veterans side, who secured the Top Tier title the previous campaign, together with Paul Maguire.
"We scored 1-0 up and had a