Introduce the Weekend Division Squad With 1,800 Premier League Games
How do you boost a outstanding veteran team who have won consecutive championships, including a double triumph boasting 30 victories from 32 matches?
Bring in a group of ex- professionals that have performed at the highest tier of club football and global soccer as you pursue additional trophies.
One Greater Manchester club fields an non-professional veterans squad with nine former Premier League players in their current lineup.
222 Premier League Scores, 325 Global Appearances
Wythenshawe Veterans Over-35s are situated in southern the city and compete in the Cheshire Veterans Division Premier Tier.
Their squad list this campaign includes 9 former top-flight footballers, with a collective 1,801 Premier League appearances.
This star-studded squad also boasts 222 Premier League scores and 325 global caps.
They feature Papiss Cisse, who scored 37 scores in 117 games for his former club after joining them for £9m from Bundesliga side Freiburg in 2012.
Cisse had his debut for Wythenshawe in their last home-field match versus reigning champions their rivals and netted all six goals in a six-two victory - including a 32-minute opening period hat-trick.
Wythenshawe's roster for this season also features ex- pros such as England and Anfield forward Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley FC midfielder George Boyd, Toffees striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan defender Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight championship victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.
Together, the ex- Premier League footballers have won fifteen major honors and moved for combined transfer fees of approximately £123 million.
Household Figures and Global 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 player then invited other ex-pros, who all compete in a weekly nine-a-side match, to join in.
Former Senegalese striker Niasse, who scored twelve scores in sixty-five Premier League matches for Everton and still attends their matches at Goodison Park, also had his debut against Collegiate OB - who are located in Liverpool and wear an Everton warm-up gear as their uniform.
"A friend Stephen Ireland said 'come and play, it's enjoyable'," commented Niasse.
"After that he informed me we were playing a team from Liverpool and the shock I had when I noticed them wearing Everton shirts - I thought this is wrong for me!
"When you still enjoy the game and you know you can still play, wherever you can play, what are you going to choose?
"The people who come and see are pleased and to give someone's moment if they see us playing there and to ask us questions - it's really about the pleasure of us having a place we can enjoy football, with organisation of course."
Such is the bench strength at Wythenshawe, he made his debut at defender.
"That's a little different but then, I enjoy running and just move inside - I'm not defending that much," he said.
"I warn my defender 'I'm not staying' and that I'm just going to continue running.
"The movement is what I'm after. It's good fun."
'Surreal Feeling
Along with the forward's 6 scores on debut, Stephen Ireland has scored eight in three appearances for the side, while Boyd hit five on his debut match and Joleon Lescott, a defender by trade, notched a hat-trick in one match up front.
The team are leading of the Premier Tier with 3 wins from three and a GD of +19.
One opponent, thirty-eight, who plays on the flank for Collegiate OB, came up against former Wigan defender Maynor Figueroa on the weekend - and had to explain his young boy who Heskey was.
Figueroa has played at two global tournaments for Honduras, in as well as featuring in more than two hundred top-flight matches.
"It was spreading like a rumor they had these ex-Premier League players," remarked the player.
"I felt I was a bit starstruck playing against Figueroa to be honest.
"Even Heskey came on and he's got 60-odd English caps.
"Our side competed well for a solid twenty mins but then we had a player sent off and it was tough.
"We really haven't ceased talking about it - I was phoning my mother and brother on the way home.
"The opponents were all friendly, shaking our hands after the game - it was like playing a group of regular guys.
"Now we are eager for the second fixture."
We Will Still Take the League'
Andy Kirby coaches the Collegiate vets side, who won the Premier Division title last season, along with his co-manager.
"We scored 1-0 up and had a