Discover the Sunday Division Team Boasting Nearly Two Thousand Premier League Matches
What can you enhance a excellent veteran side that have secured consecutive championships, featuring a league-cup double with 30 victories from 32 games?
Recruit a group of former pro players who have played at the highest tier of club football and international soccer as you aim for further honors.
A Greater Manchester side fields an non-professional vets squad with nine ex- Premier League footballers in their present lineup.
Two Hundred Twenty-Two Premier League Scores, 325 Global Appearances
Wythenshawe Vets Over 35s are situated in south the city and play in the Cheshire Vets Division Top Division.
Their squad list this season boasts 9 ex- top-flight footballers, with a total 1,801 elite games.
This elite team also boasts 222 Premier League goals and 325 global appearances.
The squad include one forward, who notched 37 goals in over 100 games for his former club after moving to them for £9m from Bundesliga side SC Freiburg in January 2012.
Cisse made his first appearance for Wythenshawe in their last home-field match against reigning title holders their rivals and scored all six scores in a six-two win - featuring a half-hour first-half triple.
The roster for this campaign also includes former professionals such as England and Liverpool striker Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley midfielder George Boyd, Everton forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic full-back Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight championship victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.
Together, the former Premier League footballers have claimed fifteen major trophies and transferred for total transfer sums of around £123m.
Household Figures and Global Stars
Stephen Ireland started playing for the side in pre-season this season through good friend and current team teammate Blake Norton, and the ex- Irish midfielder then invited additional former professionals, who all compete in a weekly nine-a-side match, to join in.
Former Senegal forward Oumar Niasse, who netted twelve scores in 65 Premier League games for Everton and even now goes to their matches at Goodison Park, also had his debut versus Collegiate OB - who are based in the city and use an Blue warm-up gear as their strip.
"A friend Stephen Ireland told me 'come and have a game, it's enjoyable'," commented Niasse.
"After that he informed me we were facing a team from Liverpool and the shock I had when I noticed them wearing Everton kits - I say this is wrong for me!
"If you still love football and you feel you can still do it, anywhere you can play, what are you going to do?
"Those spectators who turn up and watch are pleased and to give someone's moment if they see us playing there and to ask us queries - it's more like the pleasure of us getting somewhere we can enjoy football, with organisation of course."
Such is the strength in depth at Wythenshawe, he made his debut at full-back.
"It's a bit unusual but then, I love sprinting and just move forward - I'm not defending that much," he added.
"I warn my centre-back 'I'm not staying' and that I'm just going to continue running.
"That movement is what I'm looking for. It's good fun."
Unreal Scenario
Along with the forward's six scores on his first game, Ireland has scored 8 in three appearances for Wythenshawe, while Boyd hit 5 on his first appearance and Lescott, a centre-half by position, scored a hat-trick in one game as a striker.
The team are leading of the Top Division with 3 victories from three and a goal difference of plus nineteen.
Paul Barrow, 38, who plays on the flank for Collegiate OB, came up against ex- Wigan full-back Figueroa on the weekend - and had to tell his nine-year-old son who Emile Heskey was.
He has played at 2 World Cups for his country, in as well as featuring in more than 200 top-flight games.
"The news was spreading like wildfire they had all these ex-Premier League stars," remarked Barrow.
"I felt I was a bit starstruck playing against Figueroa to be honest.
"Even Emile [Heskey] got on and he's got 60-odd England caps.
"We held our own for a solid twenty minutes but then we had a player dismissed and it was tough.
"Our group literally have not ceased talking about it - I was phoning my mum and sibling on the journey home.
"They were all dead sound, shaking our hands after the game - it was like facing a bunch of normal guys.
"Now we can't wait for the second match."
We Will Still Win the Title'
Andy Kirby coaches the opposition veterans side, who won the Premier Division championship last season, together with his co-manager.
"We went one-nil ahead and had a