Discover this Sunday League Team With 1,800 Top-Flight Games
How can you boost a excellent experienced team that have claimed consecutive championships, featuring a double triumph with 30 wins from thirty-two matches?
Recruit a group of ex- pro players that have performed at the top level of club and global soccer as you aim for further trophies.
One Manchester side boasts an non-professional vets squad with 9 ex- top-flight footballers in their present lineup.
Two Hundred Twenty-Two Top Division Goals, 325 Global Appearances
Wythenshawe Vets Over-35s are based in southern the city and play in the Cheshire Vets League Top Tier.
The roster this campaign features 9 ex- Premier League players, with a total 1,801 elite appearances.
The elite squad also boasts over 220 top division scores and over 320 global caps.
They feature Papiss Cisse, who netted 37 scores in over 100 games for Newcastle United after moving to them for £9m from German league club SC Freiburg in 2012.
Cisse made his first appearance for the team in their last home game against defending title holders Collegiate Old Boys and scored all six scores in a 6-2 win - including a 32-minute opening period triple.
The squad for this campaign also includes ex- pros such as England and Anfield striker Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley FC midfielder George Boyd, Everton forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan full-back Maynor Figueroa, City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight championship victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.
Together, the former Premier League footballers have won fifteen major trophies and moved for total transfer fees of approximately £123 million.
Well-Known Figures and Global Players
Stephen Ireland started turning out for the side in pre-season this season through close mate and current team player Blake Norton, and the former Republic of Ireland midfielder then asked other former professionals, who all compete in a weekly nine-a-side game, to participate.
Ex- Senegalese forward Oumar Niasse, who netted 12 goals in sixty-five Premier League games for Everton and still goes to their matches at Goodison Park, also made his debut against the opposition - who are based in Liverpool and wear an Blue warm-up gear as their strip.
"A mate Stephen Ireland told me 'join and play, it's a laugh'," commented the striker.
"Then he told me we were facing a team from Liverpool and the shock I had when I saw them wearing Everton shirts - I thought this is strange for me!
"If you still love football and you know you can still play, anywhere you can play, what are you going to do?
"The spectators who turn up and watch are happy and to give someone's day if they watch us competing there and to ask us questions - it's really about the pleasure of us getting somewhere we can enjoy football, with organisation of course."
Such is the squad depth at Wythenshawe, he made his first game at full-back.
"It's a little different but then, I love sprinting and just move inside - I'm not defending that much," he said.
"I tell my centre-back 'I'm not staying' and that I'm just going to keep running.
"The movement is what I'm after. It's enjoyable."
Unreal Feeling
In addition to the forward's six goals on debut, Ireland has scored eight in 3 games for Wythenshawe, while George Boyd scored 5 on his debut appearance and Lescott, a defender by position, notched a triple in one match as a striker.
The team are top of the Premier Tier with three victories from 3 and a GD of +19.
One opponent, 38, who plays on the wing for Collegiate OB, came up against former Wigan full-back Maynor Figueroa on Sunday - and had to explain his nine-year-old boy who Heskey was.
Figueroa has appeared at 2 World Cups for Honduras, in as well as playing in over 200 Premier League games.
"It was going round like a rumor they had all these ex-Premier League stars," remarked the player.
"I felt I was a little awestruck facing Figueroa to be honest.
"Even Heskey came on and he's got over 60 England appearances.
"We held our own for a good twenty minutes but then we had a man sent off and it was hard.
"Our group really haven't ceased talking about it - I was phoning my mother and brother on the journey home.
"The opponents were all really nice, shaking our hands after the match - it was like playing a group of regular guys.
"Now we can't wait for the second fixture."
'We'll Still Take the League'
The manager coaches the opposition veterans team, who secured the Premier Division title the previous campaign, together with his co-manager.
"Our team scored 1-0 ahead and had a