Discover the Sunday League Squad With 1,800 Top-Flight Appearances
How can you improve a stellar experienced team that have claimed back-to-back championships, including a double triumph with 30 victories from thirty-two games?
Sign a raft of former professionals that have performed at the highest level of club and global soccer as you target further honors.
A Manchester side fields an amateur vets squad with nine ex- top-flight footballers in their active lineup.
222 Premier League Goals, 325 International Appearances
Wythenshawe Vets Over 35s are situated in southern Manchester and compete in the Cheshire-based Veterans League Premier Tier.
Their lineup this season boasts nine former Premier League players, with a total over 1,800 top-flight matches.
The star-studded squad also includes over 220 top division goals and 325 international caps.
They feature one forward, who netted 37 scores in 117 appearances for Newcastle United after joining them for £9m from Bundesliga side Freiburg in January 2012.
Cisse made his first appearance for Wythenshawe in their most recent home game versus reigning champions their rivals and scored all six scores in a 6-2 win - featuring a 32-minute first-half triple.
Wythenshawe's team for this season also features former pros such as English and Liverpool striker Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley FC midfielder George Boyd, Everton forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan defender Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight championship winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.
Collectively, the ex- Premier League footballers have claimed fifteen significant trophies and transferred for total transfer fees of about £123 million.
Famous Figures and Global Stars
Ireland started playing for the team in preseason this summer through close mate and present team player Blake Norton, and the former Irish player then invited additional ex-pros, who all compete in a midweek small-sided match, to participate.
Former Senegal forward Oumar Niasse, who scored twelve goals in sixty-five top-flight games for the Toffees and still attends their matches at Goodison Park, also made his first appearance against Collegiate OB - who are based in the city and use an Blue training kit as their uniform.
"My mate Stephen said 'come and play, it's enjoyable'," said Niasse.
"After that he informed me we were playing a team from the city and the surprise I had when I saw them wearing Everton shirts - I say this is wrong for me!
"When you still love football and you feel you can still play, anywhere you can kick a ball, what are you going to do?
"Those fans who come and see are pleased and to make a day if they watch us competing there and to pose us questions - it's really about the pleasure of us having a place we can enjoy football, with organisation of course."
So great is the squad depth at Wythenshawe, he had his first game at full-back.
"It's a little 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 staying' and that I'm just going to continue running.
"The movement is what I'm after. It's good fun."
Unreal Scenario
Along with the forward's 6 scores on debut, Ireland has scored eight in 3 appearances for Wythenshawe, while Boyd hit five on his debut appearance and Joleon Lescott, a centre-half by position, scored a hat-trick in one match up front.
Wythenshawe are leading of the Top Division with 3 wins from 3 and a goal difference of plus nineteen.
One opponent, 38, who plays on the wing for Collegiate OB, came up against ex- Latics full-back Figueroa on Sunday - and had to tell his young boy who Emile Heskey was.
He has appeared at two World Cups for Honduras, in addition to playing in more than 200 Premier League matches.
"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 caps.
"Our side competed well for a good twenty mins but then we had a player sent off and it was tough.
"Our group really haven't ceased talking about it - I was phoning my mother and brother on the way home.
"The opponents were all friendly, shaking our hands after the game - it was like facing a group of normal fellas.
"Now we are eager for the return match."
'We'll Still Take the Title'
The manager coaches the Collegiate vets team, who secured the Top Division championship the previous campaign, together with his co-manager.
"Our team went one-nil up and had a