Discover this Sunday League Squad With Nearly Two Thousand English Top Division Matches
How do you improve a excellent experienced squad that have claimed consecutive championships, including a double triumph with thirty wins from thirty-two matches?
Bring in a collection of former pro players that have competed at the top tier of club football and global soccer as you target additional silverware.
One Manchester side fields an non-professional vets team with nine ex- Premier League players in their current roster.
Two Hundred Twenty-Two Premier League Goals, Three Hundred Twenty-Five Global Caps
Wythenshawe Vets Over 35s are situated in southern Manchester and play in the Cheshire Veterans Division Premier Division.
The roster this campaign features nine ex- top-flight players, with a collective 1,801 Premier League appearances.
This elite team also contains 222 top division scores and 325 global caps.
The squad feature Papiss Cisse, who notched 37 goals in 117 appearances for his former club after signing for them for £9m from German league side SC Freiburg in January 2012.
He had his debut for Wythenshawe in their most recent home-field game against reigning title holders Collegiate Old Boys and scored all six scores in a 6-2 win - featuring a half-hour first-half triple.
The roster for this campaign also includes former professionals such as England and Anfield forward Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley FC midfielder George Boyd, Everton forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic defender Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League title victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.
In total, the ex- Premier League footballers have secured fifteen major trophies and moved for combined transfer fees of approximately £123m.
Famous Names and International Stars
Ireland began turning out for the side during preseason this season through close friend and current Wythenshawe player Blake Norton, and the former Republic of Ireland midfielder then asked other former professionals, who all play in a midweek small-sided match, to participate.
Ex- Senegalese forward Oumar Niasse, who netted twelve scores in 65 Premier League matches for Everton and still attends their home games, also made his debut against the opposition - who are based in the city and wear an Everton warm-up gear as their strip.
"A friend Stephen told me 'join and play, it's enjoyable'," said the striker.
"Then he told me we were playing a team from the city and the shock I had when I noticed them wearing Blue kits - I say this is strange for me!
"When you still love the game and you know you can still play, wherever you can kick a ball, what are you going to choose?
"The people who come and watch are happy and to give a day if they see us competing there and to ask us queries - it's really about the joy of us getting a place we can play, with structure of course."
Such is the bench strength at Wythenshawe, Niasse had his debut at defender.
"That's a bit different but then, I love sprinting and just go inside - I'm not staying back that much," he added.
"I tell my centre-back 'I'm not staying' and that I'm just going to continue attacking.
"That movement is what I'm seeking. It's good fun."
Dreamlike' Scenario
In addition to Cisse's six scores on debut, Ireland has netted 8 in 3 appearances for the side, while Boyd hit 5 on his debut match and Joleon Lescott, a defender by position, scored a triple in one match up front.
The team are top of the Top Division with three wins from three and a GD of plus nineteen.
One opponent, thirty-eight, who features on the flank for the opposition, came up against former Wigan defender Maynor Figueroa on the weekend - and had to tell his nine-year-old boy who Emile Heskey was.
He has played at two global tournaments for Honduras, in addition to playing in more than two hundred top-flight matches.
"It was spreading like a rumor they had all these ex-Premier League players," said the player.
"I think I was a bit awestruck playing against Figueroa to be honest.
"Also Emile [Heskey] got on and he's has 60-odd English appearances.
"We held our own for a solid twenty minutes but then we had a player dismissed and it was tough.
"Our group really have not ceased chatting about it - I was calling my mum and sibling on the way home.
"The opponents were all really nice, shaking our hands after the match - it was like playing a bunch of regular fellas.
"Now we can't wait for the second match."
'We'll Still Win the Title'
Andy Kirby manages the Collegiate vets side, who secured the Top Division championship the previous campaign, together with Paul Maguire.
"We scored 1-0 up and had a