Discover this Weekend Division Club Featuring Over 1,800 English Top Division Matches
How can you enhance a stellar veteran squad that have secured consecutive titles, including a league-cup double boasting thirty wins from thirty-two games?
Bring in a group of ex- pro players that have played at the highest level of club and global football as you aim for further silverware.
A Greater Manchester club fields an non-professional veterans team with nine former Premier League footballers in their present squad.
Two Hundred Twenty-Two Top Division Scores, 325 International Caps
The team Veterans Over-35s are based in southern the city and compete in the Cheshire-based Vets League Premier Division.
The squad list this campaign boasts 9 former top-flight players, with a collective nearly 1,800 Premier League games.
The star-studded squad also contains 222 Premier League scores and over 320 global appearances.
They include Papiss Cisse, who netted thirty-seven scores in over 100 games for Newcastle United after signing for them for nine million pounds from German league club Freiburg in 2012.
Cisse had his first appearance for the team in their last home-field match against reigning champions their rivals and scored all six scores in a 6-2 win - featuring a 32-minute first-half hat-trick.
The squad for this season also includes ex- pros such as England and Liverpool striker Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley FC winger George Boyd, Everton striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic full-back Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League title winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.
Collectively, the ex- Premier League footballers have secured 15 major trophies and moved for total transfer fees of approximately £123 million.
Famous Names and International Stars
Ireland started playing for the side during pre-season this season through close mate and present Wythenshawe player Blake Norton, and the former Irish player then asked other former professionals, who all play in a weekly nine-a-side game, to participate.
Ex- Senegal striker Niasse, who scored 12 goals in sixty-five Premier League matches for Everton and even now attends their home games, also had his first appearance versus the opposition - who are based in Liverpool and wear an Blue training kit as their uniform.
"My friend Stephen said 'come and have a game, it's enjoyable'," said the striker.
"After that he told me we were playing a team from the city and the shock I had when I saw them wearing Everton shirts - I say this is strange for me!
"If you still love the game and you know you can still do it, wherever you can play, what are you going to do?
"The people who come and watch are happy and to make a moment if they see us competing there and to ask us questions - it's really about the pleasure of us getting a place we can play, with structure of course."
So great is the squad depth at the club, Niasse had his first game at defender.
"That's a bit different but then, I love sprinting and just go inside - I'm not staying back that much," he said.
"I warn my centre-back 'I'm not hanging back' and that I'm just going to continue attacking.
"The running is what I'm seeking. It's good fun."
'Surreal Experience
In addition to Cisse's 6 goals on debut, Stephen Ireland has scored eight in 3 games for the side, while Boyd hit 5 on his first match and Joleon Lescott, a centre-half by position, scored a triple in one game up front.
Wythenshawe are leading of the Premier Division with three wins from three and a GD of plus nineteen.
One opponent, thirty-eight, who features on the flank for Collegiate OB, faced former Wigan defender Maynor Figueroa on the weekend - and had to tell his young son who Emile Heskey was.
Figueroa has played at 2 global tournaments for Honduras, in addition to featuring in over two hundred top-flight games.
"It was spreading like wildfire they had these ex-Premier League stars," said the player.
"I felt I was a little awestruck playing against him to be honest.
"Also Heskey got on and he's got over 60 England caps.
"We competed well for a good 20 mins but then we had a player sent off 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 regular guys.
"Now we are eager for the second match."
'We'll Still Take the Title'
The manager coaches the opposition vets team, who won the Premier Division championship last season, along with Paul Maguire.
"Our team scored 1-0 up and had a