Discover the Weekend League Squad Featuring Nearly Two Thousand Top-Flight Matches
How do you boost a excellent veteran team who have won consecutive titles, featuring a double triumph with 30 wins from thirty-two matches?
Bring in a group of former professionals that have played at the top tier of club and international soccer as you pursue additional silverware.
One Greater Manchester side boasts an amateur veterans team with 9 former top-flight players in their current lineup.
Two Hundred Twenty-Two Top Division Scores, 325 Global Caps
Wythenshawe Veterans Over-35s are based in south the city and compete in the Cheshire-based Vets League Premier Division.
Their lineup this season boasts 9 former top-flight players, with a total over 1,800 Premier League games.
The elite squad also includes over 220 Premier League scores and 325 international caps.
They feature Papiss Cisse, who scored thirty-seven scores in 117 games for his former club after signing for them for nine million pounds from German league club Freiburg in 2012.
He made his debut for the team in their most recent home game against reigning champions Collegiate Old Boys and scored every one of the six goals in a 6-2 victory - including a half-hour first-half hat-trick.
Wythenshawe's roster for this season also includes ex- professionals such as England and Liverpool forward Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley FC midfielder George Boyd, Toffees forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan defender Maynor Figueroa, City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight championship victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.
Collectively, the ex- Premier League players have secured fifteen significant honors and moved for total transfer sums of approximately £123m.
Household Figures and International Stars
Ireland started playing for the side in preseason this season through close mate and present Wythenshawe teammate Blake Norton, and the former Republic of Ireland player then asked other former professionals, who all play in a weekly small-sided game, to participate.
Ex- Senegal forward Niasse, who scored twelve goals in sixty-five top-flight games for the Toffees and even now attends their home games, also had his debut versus Collegiate OB - who are based in Liverpool and wear an Everton warm-up gear as their strip.
"My mate Stephen Ireland told me 'join and have a game, it's good fun'," commented Niasse.
"Then he told me we were facing a side from Liverpool and the surprise I had when I noticed them sporting Everton kits - I thought this is wrong for me!
"When you still enjoy football and you feel you can still play, wherever you can kick a ball, what are you going to choose?
"Those people who turn up and watch are happy and to give someone's moment if they see us playing there and to pose us questions - it's really about the joy of us getting somewhere we can play, with organisation of course."
Such is the strength in depth at the club, Niasse made his debut at defender.
"That's a bit unusual but then, I enjoy running and just move inside - I'm not staying back that much," he added.
"I warn my centre-back 'I'm not hanging back' and that I'm just going to keep attacking.
"That running is what I'm seeking. It's good fun."
Unreal Scenario
In addition to Cisse's six goals on debut, Ireland has netted 8 in 3 games for the side, while George Boyd hit 5 on his debut appearance and Lescott, a centre-half by position, notched a hat-trick in one game up front.
Wythenshawe are top of the Top Division with 3 wins from three and a GD of plus nineteen.
One opponent, thirty-eight, who features on the wing for Collegiate OB, came up against ex- Wigan defender Figueroa on Sunday - and had to explain his nine-year-old son who Emile Heskey was.
He has played at 2 global tournaments for Honduras, in addition to featuring in more than two hundred top-flight matches.
"The news was going round like a rumor they had these former top-flight stars," said Barrow.
"I felt I was a little starstruck playing against him to be honest.
"Also Emile [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 player sent off and it was hard.
"We literally have not ceased chatting about it - I was calling my mum and brother on the journey home.
"The opponents were all really nice, shaking our hands after the match - it was like facing a bunch of normal guys.
"Now we can't wait for the second fixture."
'We'll Still Win the Title'
The manager coaches the Collegiate veterans side, who won the Top Tier title last season, together with Paul Maguire.
"We scored 1-0 ahead and had a