Discover this Weekend League Team Boasting Nearly Two Thousand Top-Flight Appearances
What can you enhance a stellar veteran team who have claimed consecutive titles, featuring a double triumph with thirty wins from thirty-two games?
Recruit a collection of former professionals who have performed at the elite tier of club and international football as you pursue further trophies.
A Manchester club boasts an amateur veterans team with nine ex- top-flight players in their current squad.
Two Hundred Twenty-Two Top Division Goals, 325 Global Appearances
Wythenshawe Vets Over-35s are located in southern the city and play in the Cheshire Veterans League Top Tier.
Their roster this campaign boasts 9 ex- top-flight footballers, with a collective nearly 1,800 elite games.
This star-studded roster also contains over 220 top division goals and 325 international appearances.
The squad include one forward, who notched 37 goals in 117 games for Newcastle United after joining them for nine million pounds from Bundesliga side Freiburg in 2012.
Cisse had his debut for the team in their most recent home game against defending champions their rivals and scored all six scores in a six-two victory - including a 32-minute opening period triple.
Wythenshawe's team for this campaign also features ex- professionals such as English and Liverpool forward Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley winger George Boyd, Everton striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan full-back Maynor Figueroa, City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight title winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.
Together, the former Premier League footballers have claimed 15 big trophies and moved for combined transfer fees of about £123 million.
Well-Known Figures and International Stars
Ireland began turning out for the side during pre-season this season through good mate and present Wythenshawe teammate Blake Norton, and the ex- Republic of Ireland midfielder then asked additional former professionals, who all compete in a weekly nine-a-side match, to join in.
Former Senegal forward Oumar Niasse, who scored 12 goals in 65 Premier League matches for Everton and even now attends their matches at Goodison Park, also made his first appearance against Collegiate OB - who are located in Liverpool and use an Everton training kit as their strip.
"My friend Stephen Ireland told me 'come and play, it's enjoyable'," said Niasse.
"After that he told me we were playing a side from the city and the shock I had when I noticed them sporting Everton kits - I say this is strange for me!
"When you still enjoy the game and you feel you can still do it, anywhere you can play, what are you going to choose?
"The fans who come and see are happy and to give someone's day if they watch us playing there and to ask us queries - it's more like the pleasure of us having somewhere we can play, with organisation of course."
So great is the bench strength at the club, he made his first game at defender.
"It's a little unusual but then, I enjoy sprinting and just move 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 keep running.
"The movement is what I'm after. It's good fun."
Dreamlike' Feeling
In addition to Cisse's six goals on debut, Ireland has scored eight in 3 games for the side, while George Boyd scored five on his debut appearance and Lescott, a defender by position, notched a hat-trick in one match up front.
Wythenshawe are top of the Top Tier with three wins from 3 and a GD of +19.
One opponent, 38, who features on the flank for Collegiate OB, came up against ex- Latics defender Maynor Figueroa on Sunday - and had to tell his young son who Emile Heskey was.
Figueroa has played at two World Cups for Honduras, in addition to featuring in more than 200 Premier League games.
"The news was going round like a rumor they had these former top-flight stars," said Barrow.
"I felt I was a little starstruck playing against him to be honest.
"Even Heskey came on and he's has over 60 England caps.
"Our side competed well for a solid 20 minutes but then we had a player dismissed and it was tough.
"Our group literally have not stopped chatting about it - I was phoning my mother and brother on the journey home.
"The opponents were all friendly, shaking our hands after the match - it was like facing a group of normal guys.
"Now we are eager for the second match."
'We'll Still Take the League'
Andy Kirby manages the opposition veterans side, who won the Premier Division title the previous campaign, together with Paul Maguire.
"Our team scored one-nil up and had a