Introduce the Weekend League Club With Nearly Two Thousand English Top Division Appearances
What do you boost a excellent experienced team that have claimed consecutive titles, featuring a league-cup double boasting 30 wins from 32 games?
Bring in a collection of ex- professionals that have performed at the highest tier of club and international soccer as you pursue further silverware.
A Manchester club fields an non-professional vets squad with nine ex- top-flight footballers in their present roster.
Two Hundred Twenty-Two Top Division Goals, Three Hundred Twenty-Five International Appearances
Wythenshawe Vets Over 35s are situated in south Manchester and play in the Cheshire-based Veterans League Top Division.
Their lineup this campaign features 9 ex- Premier League players, with a combined over 1,800 elite games.
The elite team also includes over 220 Premier League goals and 325 global caps.
The squad include Papiss Cisse, who notched thirty-seven scores in over 100 games for Newcastle United after joining them for nine million pounds from German league side Freiburg in January 2012.
Cisse had his debut for Wythenshawe in their most recent home-field match against defending title holders Collegiate Old Boys and netted every one of the six goals in a six-two victory - featuring a 32-minute opening period hat-trick.
Wythenshawe's squad for this campaign also includes former pros such as English and Anfield striker Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley FC winger George Boyd, Toffees striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic full-back Maynor Figueroa, City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League championship winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.
In total, the former Premier League footballers have claimed 15 significant trophies and transferred for total transfer fees of approximately £123m.
Household Names and International Stars
Ireland began playing for the side during pre-season this summer through good friend and present Wythenshawe teammate Blake Norton, and the ex- Republic of Ireland player then invited other ex-pros, who all compete in a midweek nine-a-side game, to participate.
Former Senegal forward Oumar Niasse, who netted 12 goals in 65 top-flight games for the Toffees and even now attends their home games, also made his first appearance against Collegiate OB - who are based in the city and use an Everton warm-up gear as their strip.
"A friend Stephen said 'come and play, it's enjoyable'," said Niasse.
"Then he told me we were facing a side from the city and the shock I had when I saw them sporting Everton shirts - I thought this is strange for me!
"If you still love the game and you feel you can still do it, anywhere you can play, what are you going to do?
"The people who come and watch are happy and to give a moment if they see us playing there and to pose us queries - it's really about the joy of us having a place we can enjoy football, with structure of course."
So great is the strength in depth at Wythenshawe, he had his debut at defender.
"That's a little different but then, I love running and just go forward - I'm not staying back that much," he added.
"I warn my defender 'I'm not hanging back' and that I'm just going to keep attacking.
"That movement is what I'm after. It's good fun."
'Surreal Feeling
In addition to the forward's six scores on his first game, Stephen Ireland has netted eight in three appearances for Wythenshawe, while Boyd hit five on his debut match and Lescott, a defender by trade, notched a triple in one game as a striker.
The team are top of the Top Division with 3 victories from 3 and a goal difference of +19.
One opponent, thirty-eight, who plays on the wing for Collegiate OB, came up against former Wigan defender Figueroa on the weekend - and had to explain his nine-year-old son who Heskey was.
He has played at two global tournaments for Honduras, in addition to featuring in over two hundred Premier League matches.
"It was going round like a rumor they had these ex-Premier League stars," said the player.
"I think I was a little starstruck playing against Figueroa to be honest.
"Even Emile [Heskey] got on and he's has 60-odd English caps.
"We held our own for a solid twenty minutes but then we had a player sent off and it was hard.
"We really haven't stopped chatting about it - I was phoning my mum and brother on the way home.
"They were all really nice, shaking our hands after the game - it was like playing a group of normal guys.
"Now we are eager for the second fixture."
We Will Still Win the League'
Andy Kirby coaches the opposition veterans team, who won the Premier Division title last season, together with his co-manager.
"We scored one-nil ahead and had a