Discover the Weekend Division Club Featuring 1,800 English Top Division Games
How do you improve a outstanding experienced team that have secured consecutive titles, featuring a league-cup double boasting thirty wins from 32 games?
Bring in a group of ex- professionals that have competed at the highest tier of club football and international football as you aim for additional trophies.
A Greater Manchester team has an non-professional veterans squad with nine former top-flight footballers in their current lineup.
Two Hundred Twenty-Two Top Division Goals, 325 Global Appearances
Wythenshawe Vets Over-35s are situated in south the city and compete in the Cheshire Veterans Division Top Tier.
Their roster this campaign boasts 9 former top-flight footballers, with a combined nearly 1,800 top-flight matches.
This high-profile roster also contains over 220 Premier League goals and over 320 international appearances.
The squad include Papiss Cisse, who scored 37 goals in 117 appearances for Newcastle United after joining them for nine million pounds from Bundesliga club SC Freiburg in 2012.
He made his debut for the team in their last home match against defending title holders Collegiate Old Boys and netted all six scores in a 6-2 victory - including a half-hour opening period triple.
Wythenshawe's squad for this season also features former pros such as English and Liverpool striker Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley FC winger George Boyd, Toffees striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan defender Maynor Figueroa, City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League title victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.
Collectively, the former Premier League footballers have claimed fifteen significant honors and moved for combined transfer sums of around £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 player Blake Norton, and the ex- Irish player then asked additional former professionals, who all play in a midweek nine-a-side game, to join in.
Former Senegalese forward Niasse, who netted twelve scores in sixty-five Premier League matches for the Toffees and still goes to their matches at Goodison Park, also made his first appearance against Collegiate OB - who are located in the city and use an Blue warm-up gear as their uniform.
"A mate Stephen Ireland told me 'come and have a game, it's enjoyable'," commented the striker.
"Then he told me we were facing a side from the city and the surprise I had when I noticed them sporting Blue shirts - I thought this is strange for me!
"If you still love football and you know you can still play, wherever you can kick a ball, what are you going to choose?
"The fans who turn up and watch are happy and to make a day if they see us competing there and to ask us questions - it's more like the pleasure of us getting a place we can play, with organisation of course."
Such is the squad depth at Wythenshawe, he had his debut at full-back.
"It's a bit different but then, I love running and just move inside - I'm not defending that much," he added.
"I tell my centre-back 'I'm not hanging back' and that I'm just going to continue attacking.
"That running is what I'm seeking. It's enjoyable."
'Surreal Feeling
In addition to the forward's 6 scores on his first game, Stephen Ireland has scored eight in 3 appearances for the side, while Boyd hit five on his debut appearance and Lescott, a defender by trade, notched a triple in one game as a striker.
The team are top of the Premier Division with three victories from 3 and a goal difference of plus nineteen.
One opponent, thirty-eight, who plays on the flank for Collegiate OB, faced ex- Wigan full-back Figueroa on the weekend - and had to tell his young boy who Emile Heskey was.
Figueroa has played at two World Cups for his country, in as well as featuring in over two hundred top-flight matches.
"The news was going round like wildfire they had these former top-flight players," said the player.
"I felt I was a little awestruck playing against him to be honest.
"Also Heskey came on and he's has over 60 English caps.
"Our side competed well for a solid twenty mins but then we had a player sent off and it was hard.
"Our group literally haven't ceased chatting about it - I was calling my mother and sibling on the journey home.
"They were all really nice, shaking our hands after the game - it was like facing a group of normal fellas.
"Now we can't wait for the return match."
'We'll Still Win the League'
Andy Kirby coaches the opposition vets side, who secured the Premier Division championship last season, together with his co-manager.
"We scored 1-0 up and had a