Discover this Sunday Division Squad With Nearly Two Thousand Top-Flight Games
What can you boost a stellar veteran team that have secured back-to-back championships, featuring a league-cup double with thirty victories from 32 games?
Bring in a group of ex- pro players that have competed at the elite tier of club football and global football as you pursue further trophies.
One Manchester side has an amateur veterans team with nine former top-flight footballers in their active squad.
Two Hundred Twenty-Two Top Division Goals, 325 International Caps
The team Veterans Over 35s are based in south Manchester and compete in the Cheshire-based Veterans League Premier Tier.
The squad list this season features nine ex- top-flight footballers, with a collective over 1,800 Premier League matches.
This star-studded roster also contains 222 top division scores and over 320 global appearances.
They feature Papiss Cisse, who notched thirty-seven scores in over 100 games for his former club after moving to them for nine million pounds from German league club SC Freiburg in January 2012.
He made his first appearance for the team in their last home-field match against reigning champions Collegiate Old Boys and netted every one of the six goals in a 6-2 victory - including a half-hour opening period triple.
Wythenshawe's squad for this campaign also includes ex- pros such as England and Anfield forward Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley winger George Boyd, Toffees striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan full-back Maynor Figueroa, City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League title winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.
Together, the former top-flight footballers have won 15 big trophies and moved for total transfer fees of about £123m.
Household Figures and Global Stars
Ireland started playing for the team during preseason this summer through good friend and current Wythenshawe teammate Blake Norton, and the ex- Irish midfielder then asked other former professionals, who all compete in a midweek small-sided game, to join in.
Former Senegalese forward Niasse, who netted 12 scores in 65 top-flight games for Everton and still attends their home games, also made his debut against Collegiate OB - who are located in Liverpool and wear an Everton warm-up gear as their strip.
"My friend Stephen Ireland told me 'come and play, it's a laugh'," said the striker.
"Then he informed me we were facing a team from Liverpool and the shock I had when I noticed them sporting Everton shirts - I thought this is strange for me!
"If you still enjoy the game and you know you can still play, anywhere you can kick a ball, what are you going to choose?
"Those fans who come and watch are happy and to give someone's moment if they watch us competing there and to ask us queries - it's more like the joy of us getting somewhere we can enjoy football, with organisation of course."
Such is the strength in depth at Wythenshawe, Niasse had his first game at defender.
"That's a bit different but then, I enjoy sprinting and just go inside - I'm not defending that much," he added.
"I tell my centre-back 'I'm not staying' and that I'm just going to keep running.
"That movement is what I'm seeking. It's good fun."
Unreal Scenario
In addition to Cisse's 6 scores on his first game, Stephen Ireland has netted eight in three appearances for Wythenshawe, while George Boyd scored 5 on his first appearance and Lescott, a defender by trade, notched a triple in one match as a striker.
The team are top of the Top Tier with 3 wins from 3 and a GD of plus nineteen.
Paul Barrow, 38, who features on the flank for the opposition, faced ex- Latics full-back Figueroa on Sunday - and had to tell his young son who Heskey was.
He has appeared at 2 global tournaments for Honduras, in as well as playing in over 200 top-flight games.
"It was going round like a rumor they had all these former top-flight players," said the player.
"I felt I was a bit awestruck facing Figueroa to be honest.
"Also Heskey got on and he's got 60-odd English appearances.
"Our side held our own for a solid 20 mins but then we had a player sent off and it was hard.
"Our group literally haven't stopped talking about it - I was phoning my mum and sibling on the way home.
"They were all friendly, shaking our hands after the match - it was like facing a group of normal fellas.
"Now we can't wait for the second fixture."
We Will Still Win the Title'
The manager manages the opposition veterans side, who secured the Premier Division title last season, along with Paul Maguire.
"We went 1-0 ahead and had a