Discover the Weekend League Squad Boasting 1,800 English Top Division Matches
How do you boost a excellent experienced team that have secured consecutive titles, featuring a league-cup double with thirty wins from thirty-two matches?
Recruit a collection of ex- professionals that have performed at the elite level of club football and global soccer as you target additional trophies.
A Manchester club fields an amateur veterans team with nine ex- top-flight footballers in their present lineup.
Two Hundred Twenty-Two Top Division Goals, 325 International Caps
Wythenshawe Vets Over 35s are based in south the city and play in the Cheshire Vets League Top Tier.
Their roster this season boasts 9 former Premier League players, with a total over 1,800 top-flight games.
This star-studded roster also includes 222 top division scores and 325 international appearances.
The squad include one forward, who scored thirty-seven goals in 117 games for his former club after moving to them for £9m from German league side SC Freiburg in January 2012.
He had his debut for Wythenshawe in their most recent home game versus defending title holders their rivals and netted all six scores in a six-two victory - including a 32-minute first-half triple.
The roster for this campaign also includes ex- pros such as English and Anfield forward Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley FC winger George Boyd, Everton striker 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.
Collectively, the ex- top-flight players have claimed fifteen significant trophies and moved for combined transfer fees of around £123 million.
Household Names and International Players
Ireland started turning out for the side in pre-season this season through good friend and current Wythenshawe player Blake Norton, and the former Republic of Ireland midfielder then asked other ex-pros, who all play in a weekly small-sided match, to join in.
Ex- Senegal forward Niasse, who netted twelve scores in sixty-five top-flight games for the Toffees and even now goes to their matches at Goodison Park, also had his debut against Collegiate OB - who are located in Liverpool and use an Everton training kit as their uniform.
"A mate Stephen Ireland told me 'come and have a game, it's enjoyable'," commented the striker.
"Then he told me we were playing a side from the city and the surprise I had when I noticed them wearing Blue kits - I thought this is wrong for me!
"If you still love the game and you know you can still play, wherever you can play, what are you going to do?
"The fans who come and see are happy and to make a day if they watch us playing there and to ask us questions - it's more like the joy of us getting a place we can enjoy football, with organisation of course."
Such is the bench strength at the club, he made his first game at full-back.
"It's a bit unusual but then, I love running and just move forward - I'm not staying back that much," he added.
"I warn my centre-back 'I'm not staying' and that I'm just going to continue running.
"That movement is what I'm after. It's enjoyable."
'Surreal Experience
In addition to Cisse's 6 goals on his first game, Ireland has scored 8 in three games for the side, while Boyd scored 5 on his debut appearance and Lescott, a defender by position, scored a triple in one match up front.
Wythenshawe are top of the Premier Division with 3 wins from three and a goal difference of plus nineteen.
Paul Barrow, thirty-eight, who plays on the flank for Collegiate OB, came up against ex- Latics defender Maynor Figueroa on Sunday - and had to explain his nine-year-old son who Emile Heskey was.
He has appeared at 2 World Cups for his country, in addition to playing in over 200 Premier League games.
"It was going round like wildfire they had these former top-flight stars," said Barrow.
"I think I was a little awestruck facing Figueroa to be honest.
"Also Heskey got on and he's has over 60 English caps.
"Our side competed well for a good twenty mins but then we had a man dismissed and it was tough.
"We really have not ceased talking about it - I was calling my mum and sibling on the way home.
"They were all friendly, shaking our hands after the match - it was like facing a group of normal fellas.
"Now we can't wait for the return match."
'We'll Still Win the League'
The manager manages the opposition veterans side, who secured the Top Tier championship the previous campaign, together with his co-manager.
"Our team went 1-0 ahead and had a