Meet the Sunday League Squad Featuring Nearly Two Thousand Premier League Games
How can you boost a stellar experienced team that have secured back-to-back championships, featuring a league-cup double boasting thirty victories from thirty-two matches?
Bring in a raft of ex- professionals who have played at the highest tier of club and global football as you pursue additional silverware.
One Greater Manchester club boasts an amateur veterans squad with 9 ex- Premier League footballers in their current lineup.
Two Hundred Twenty-Two Top Division Goals, Three Hundred Twenty-Five International Appearances
Wythenshawe Veterans Over-35s are situated in southern the city and compete in the Cheshire-based Veterans Division Top Division.
Their lineup this campaign boasts 9 ex- Premier League players, with a combined nearly 1,800 Premier League appearances.
This elite roster also boasts over 220 Premier League scores and 325 global caps.
The squad feature Papiss Cisse, who scored thirty-seven scores in over 100 appearances for his former club after joining them for nine million pounds from Bundesliga side SC Freiburg in January 2012.
Cisse made his debut for the team in their last home game against reigning title holders their rivals and netted every one of the six scores in a six-two win - including a half-hour opening period triple.
The roster for this season also features former professionals such as England and Anfield forward Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley FC midfielder George Boyd, Toffees forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan full-back Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight title winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.
Collectively, the former Premier League footballers have claimed fifteen big trophies and transferred for total transfer sums of approximately £123 million.
Well-Known Figures and International Stars
Stephen Ireland started turning out for the team during pre-season this summer through good mate and present Wythenshawe teammate Blake Norton, and the former Irish midfielder then invited other former professionals, who all play in a midweek nine-a-side game, to join in.
Ex- Senegal forward Oumar Niasse, who scored 12 scores in 65 Premier League matches for Everton and still attends their matches at Goodison Park, also had his first appearance versus the opposition - who are located in Liverpool and wear an Blue warm-up gear as their strip.
"A friend Stephen Ireland said 'join and play, it's good fun'," said Niasse.
"Then he told me we were playing a team from Liverpool and the surprise I had when I saw them wearing Everton shirts - I thought this is wrong for me!
"When you still enjoy football and you know you can still do it, wherever you can play, what are you going to do?
"Those people who come and see are happy and to give someone's day if they see us playing there and to ask us questions - it's really about the pleasure of us having somewhere we can enjoy football, with structure of course."
So great is the squad depth at the club, Niasse had his first game at full-back.
"It's a little unusual but then, I enjoy running and just move forward - 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 continue attacking.
"That movement is what I'm after. It's good fun."
'Surreal Scenario
Along with Cisse's six scores on debut, Ireland has scored 8 in three games for Wythenshawe, while George Boyd scored 5 on his debut appearance and Joleon Lescott, a centre-half by position, notched a triple in one game up front.
Wythenshawe are top of the Premier Division with 3 victories from three and a goal difference of +19.
One opponent, thirty-eight, who features on the wing for the opposition, faced former Latics full-back Maynor Figueroa on the weekend - and had to tell his young son who Emile Heskey was.
He has appeared at 2 World Cups for Honduras, in addition to playing in over 200 top-flight games.
"It was going round like a rumor they had these ex-Premier League players," remarked the player.
"I think I was a bit starstruck facing him to be honest.
"Also Heskey came on and he's has over 60 English caps.
"We competed well for a solid twenty minutes but then we had a player dismissed and it was tough.
"We really have not stopped chatting about it - I was calling my mum and sibling on the journey home.
"They were all dead sound, shaking our hands after the match - it was like playing a group of normal fellas.
"Now we can't wait for the return fixture."
We Will Still Win the Title'
The manager manages the opposition vets team, who won the Premier Division championship the previous campaign, along with Paul Maguire.
"Our team went 1-0 ahead and had a