Meet this Weekend Division Team With 1,800 English Top Division Matches
What can you boost a stellar veteran squad that have secured consecutive championships, featuring a league-cup double boasting thirty victories from thirty-two matches?
Bring in a raft of ex- pro players that have played at the elite level of club football and international soccer as you aim for additional honors.
One Manchester team has an amateur veterans squad with nine former Premier League players in their current roster.
222 Top Division Goals, 325 International Caps
Wythenshawe Veterans Over 35s are based in southern the city and play in the Cheshire-based Vets Division Top Tier.
Their roster this campaign features 9 former top-flight players, with a total over 1,800 Premier League games.
This elite team also boasts 222 Premier League goals and 325 international appearances.
They include Papiss Cisse, who netted 37 goals in over 100 games for Newcastle United after signing for them for nine million pounds from German league side Freiburg in 2012.
He made his first appearance for the team in their last home-field game against reigning title holders Collegiate Old Boys and netted all six scores in a six-two win - including a 32-minute opening period hat-trick.
Wythenshawe's squad for this campaign also includes former pros such as England and Liverpool striker 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 championship victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.
In total, the ex- top-flight footballers have claimed fifteen significant honors and transferred for total transfer sums of around £123m.
Well-Known Figures and Global Players
Ireland began playing for the team during preseason this season through close friend and present Wythenshawe teammate Blake Norton, and the ex- Irish player then invited other ex-pros, who all compete in a weekly nine-a-side game, to participate.
Ex- Senegalese forward Oumar Niasse, who netted twelve scores in sixty-five top-flight games for Everton and still attends their home games, also had his first appearance against Collegiate OB - who are located in the city and wear an Blue warm-up gear as their strip.
"A mate Stephen said 'join and play, it's a laugh'," said the striker.
"Then he told me we were playing a side from the city and the surprise I had when I saw them sporting Blue shirts - I thought this is strange for me!
"If you still enjoy the game and you know you can still play, wherever you can kick a ball, what are you going to choose?
"Those people who turn up and watch are happy and to give someone's moment if they watch us playing there and to pose us questions - it's more like the pleasure of us getting a place we can play, with structure of course."
Such is the bench strength at the club, he made his first game at full-back.
"That's a bit unusual but then, I love sprinting and just move inside - I'm not staying back that much," he added.
"I warn my defender 'I'm not staying' and that I'm just going to continue attacking.
"The running is what I'm seeking. It's enjoyable."
'Surreal Feeling
Along with the forward's 6 goals on his first game, Ireland has scored eight in three appearances for the side, while Boyd scored five on his debut match and Joleon Lescott, a centre-half by position, notched a triple in one game up front.
Wythenshawe are leading of the Top Division with three wins from three and a goal difference of plus nineteen.
One opponent, thirty-eight, who features on the wing for the opposition, faced former Latics full-back Maynor Figueroa on the weekend - and had to tell his young boy who Heskey was.
Figueroa has appeared at 2 World Cups for his country, in as well as playing in over two hundred top-flight matches.
"The news was spreading like a rumor they had these ex-Premier League players," said the player.
"I felt I was a little awestruck playing against Figueroa to be honest.
"Also Emile [Heskey] came on and he's got over 60 English caps.
"Our side held our own for a good 20 minutes but then we had a player sent off and it was tough.
"We literally have not stopped chatting about it - I was calling my mother and sibling on the way home.
"The opponents were all dead sound, shaking our hands after the game - it was like facing a bunch of regular guys.
"Now we are eager for the return match."
We Will Still Win the Title'
The manager manages the opposition vets team, who secured the Top Division championship the previous campaign, along with his co-manager.
"We scored one-nil ahead and had a