Discover the Weekend League Club With Nearly Two Thousand Top-Flight Games

How do you enhance a excellent veteran squad who have won consecutive championships, including a league-cup double boasting thirty wins from thirty-two games?

Bring in a raft of ex- pro players who have competed at the elite tier of club and global soccer as you target additional trophies.

A Manchester club has an non-professional vets team with nine former top-flight players in their active roster.

222 Premier League Goals, Three Hundred Twenty-Five Global Appearances

Wythenshawe Veterans Over 35s are situated in south Manchester and play in the Cheshire-based Veterans Division Premier Division.

The squad list this campaign includes 9 ex- top-flight players, with a total 1,801 Premier League appearances.

The elite team also contains over 220 Premier League goals and over 320 global caps.

The squad include Papiss Cisse, who netted 37 scores in 117 games for his former club after joining them for nine million pounds from Bundesliga club Freiburg in January 2012.

Cisse made his debut for the team in their most recent home-field game versus defending title holders Collegiate Old Boys and scored every one of the six scores in a 6-2 victory - featuring a half-hour opening period hat-trick.

Wythenshawe's team for this campaign also features ex- professionals such as English and Anfield striker Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley FC winger George Boyd, Toffees striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic full-back Maynor Figueroa, City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight title winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

Together, the ex- Premier League footballers have won 15 major honors and transferred for combined transfer sums of about £123 million.

Household Names and Global Stars

Ireland began playing for the team during pre-season this summer through close friend and present Wythenshawe player Blake Norton, and the former Irish player then invited other former professionals, who all compete in a midweek nine-a-side game, to participate.

Ex- Senegalese striker Oumar Niasse, who scored twelve scores in sixty-five top-flight 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 Liverpool and use an Blue training kit as their uniform.

"My friend Stephen Ireland said 'come and have a game, it's a laugh'," commented Niasse.

"After that he told me we were playing a team from Liverpool and the surprise I had when I saw them wearing Everton shirts - I say this is strange for me!

"When you still love football and you feel you can still play, wherever you can kick a ball, what are you going to choose?

"Those spectators who turn up and watch are pleased and to make a moment if they see us playing there and to ask us questions - it's really about the joy of us getting a place we can enjoy football, with organisation of course."

So great is the bench strength at Wythenshawe, Niasse made his debut at full-back.

"It's a little different but then, I enjoy running and just go inside - I'm not staying back that much," he added.

"I warn my centre-back 'I'm not staying' and that I'm just going to keep attacking.

"The movement is what I'm after. It's good fun."

Unreal Experience

Along with the forward's six goals on debut, Ireland has scored eight in 3 appearances for the side, while Boyd hit 5 on his debut match and Lescott, a defender by trade, scored a hat-trick in one match up front.

The team are leading of the Top Division with three victories from 3 and a GD of +19.

One opponent, thirty-eight, who plays on the wing for Collegiate OB, faced former Wigan defender Figueroa on the weekend - and had to tell his nine-year-old son who Heskey was.

Figueroa has played at two global tournaments for Honduras, in as well as playing in more than 200 top-flight matches.

"The news was going round like a rumor they had these ex-Premier League stars," remarked Barrow.

"I felt I was a little awestruck facing him to be honest.

"Even Emile [Heskey] got on and he's has over 60 England caps.

"Our side held our own for a solid 20 minutes but then we had a man sent off and it was tough.

"We really have not ceased chatting about it - I was phoning my mum and sibling on the journey home.

"The opponents were all really nice, shaking our hands after the game - it was like playing a bunch of normal fellas.

"Now we can't wait for the return fixture."

'We'll Still Take the Title'

The manager coaches the Collegiate veterans team, who secured the Premier Division title the previous campaign, together with his co-manager.

"We scored 1-0 ahead and had a