Meet this Sunday League Club Boasting Nearly Two Thousand English Top Division Games
How do you improve a outstanding veteran team that have claimed consecutive titles, featuring a double triumph with thirty wins from thirty-two games?
Recruit a raft of former pro players who have played at the highest level of club football and global football as you aim for additional silverware.
A Greater Manchester side boasts an amateur vets team with 9 former Premier League players in their current lineup.
Two Hundred Twenty-Two Top Division Goals, Three Hundred Twenty-Five International Appearances
The team Vets Over-35s are situated in southern the city and play in the Cheshire-based Vets Division Top Division.
Their roster this campaign features nine former Premier League players, with a total nearly 1,800 top-flight appearances.
This high-profile squad also boasts over 220 top division goals and 325 global appearances.
They feature Papiss Cisse, who notched 37 scores in 117 appearances for Newcastle United after joining them for nine million pounds from Bundesliga club SC Freiburg in 2012.
He had his debut for the team in their last home-field match versus reigning title holders Collegiate Old Boys and scored every one of the six goals in a six-two win - including a 32-minute opening period hat-trick.
Wythenshawe's team for this campaign also includes former professionals such as English and Liverpool striker Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley midfielder George Boyd, Toffees forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan full-back Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight title victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.
Together, the ex- Premier League players have claimed fifteen big honors and transferred for combined transfer sums of about £123m.
Famous Figures and Global Players
Ireland started playing for the side in pre-season this summer through good mate and current Wythenshawe teammate Blake Norton, and the former Irish player then asked additional former professionals, who all play in a weekly small-sided match, to participate.
Former Senegalese forward Niasse, who scored 12 scores in 65 Premier League matches for the Toffees and still attends their home games, also had his debut versus the opposition - who are located in the city and wear an Blue warm-up gear as their uniform.
"A mate Stephen said 'come and play, it's good fun'," commented the striker.
"Then he informed me we were facing a team from Liverpool and the shock I had when I saw them sporting Blue shirts - I say this is strange for me!
"When you still enjoy football and you know you can still do it, anywhere 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 watch us competing there and to ask us queries - it's really about the pleasure of us having somewhere we can play, with organisation of course."
So great is the squad depth at Wythenshawe, Niasse had his debut at defender.
"It's a bit unusual but then, I enjoy running and just go forward - I'm not defending that much," he added.
"I warn my defender 'I'm not hanging back' and that I'm just going to keep attacking.
"That running is what I'm seeking. It's enjoyable."
Dreamlike' Feeling
Along with Cisse's six scores on his first game, Ireland has netted 8 in 3 games for the side, while Boyd scored five on his first match and Joleon Lescott, a centre-half by trade, scored a hat-trick in one match as a striker.
The team are leading of the Top Tier with 3 victories from 3 and a goal difference of plus nineteen.
Paul Barrow, thirty-eight, who features on the flank for the opposition, came up against ex- Latics defender Maynor Figueroa on the weekend - and had to explain his young son who Heskey was.
Figueroa has appeared at two global tournaments for his country, in addition to featuring in more than 200 Premier League games.
"The news was going round like wildfire they had these ex-Premier League players," said the player.
"I felt I was a little starstruck playing against him to be honest.
"Also Heskey came on and he's has 60-odd England caps.
"We competed well for a good 20 minutes but then we had a man dismissed and it was tough.
"Our group really haven't stopped talking about it - I was phoning my mother and sibling on the journey home.
"They were all dead sound, shaking our hands after the match - it was like facing a bunch of normal guys.
"Now we can't wait for the second fixture."
'We'll Still Take the League'
Andy Kirby coaches the opposition vets team, who won the Premier Division title last season, together with his co-manager.
"Our team went 1-0 ahead and had a