Discover the Sunday League Club Boasting Nearly Two Thousand English Top Division Matches
How can you enhance a outstanding experienced squad that have won consecutive titles, featuring a league-cup double with 30 victories from 32 games?
Bring in a group of former professionals that have played at the elite level of club and global soccer as you pursue additional honors.
A Greater Manchester side boasts an non-professional veterans team with nine former Premier League players in their active squad.
222 Premier League Scores, 325 Global Caps
Wythenshawe Veterans Over 35s are based in south the city and play in the Cheshire Veterans League Premier Tier.
The lineup this campaign boasts 9 former Premier League players, with a total 1,801 elite games.
The elite team also includes over 220 top division goals and 325 international appearances.
They include Papiss Cisse, who notched 37 goals in 117 appearances for Newcastle United after joining them for nine million pounds from Bundesliga club Freiburg in 2012.
He had his debut for Wythenshawe in their last home match versus reigning champions their rivals and scored all six scores in a 6-2 win - including a half-hour opening period hat-trick.
The squad for this season also features ex- professionals such as English and Liverpool striker Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley FC midfielder George Boyd, Everton forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic defender Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight championship victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.
Collectively, the ex- top-flight footballers have won fifteen big honors and moved for combined transfer sums of around £123m.
Famous Figures and Global Players
Stephen Ireland started playing for the side during preseason this season through good mate and present Wythenshawe player Blake Norton, and the ex- Republic of Ireland player then asked other ex-pros, who all compete in a weekly small-sided match, to participate.
Ex- Senegal forward Niasse, who scored twelve scores in sixty-five top-flight matches for Everton and even now goes to their matches at Goodison Park, also made his first appearance versus the opposition - who are located in the city and use an Blue warm-up gear as their strip.
"My mate Stephen Ireland told me 'come and play, it's good fun'," said Niasse.
"Then he informed me we were facing a team from Liverpool and the shock I had when I saw them wearing Everton shirts - I say this is wrong for me!
"When you still enjoy football and you feel you can still do it, wherever you can play, what are you going to choose?
"Those people who turn up and see are pleased and to give a moment if they see us competing there and to ask us queries - it's more like the joy of us getting a place we can play, with structure of course."
So great is the bench strength at the club, he had his first game at full-back.
"It's a little unusual but then, I enjoy sprinting and just go inside - I'm not staying back that much," he said.
"I warn my defender 'I'm not hanging back' and that I'm just going to continue attacking.
"That movement is what I'm looking for. It's enjoyable."
'Surreal Scenario
Along with the forward's six goals on his first game, Stephen Ireland has netted 8 in 3 appearances for the side, while Boyd hit five on his first match and Joleon Lescott, a centre-half by position, notched a triple in one game as a striker.
The team are leading of the Top Tier with three victories from 3 and a GD of plus nineteen.
One opponent, thirty-eight, who features on the wing for the opposition, came up against ex- Wigan defender Maynor Figueroa on Sunday - and had to tell his young son who Emile Heskey was.
He has played at two global tournaments for his country, in as well as playing in over 200 Premier League matches.
"The news was spreading like wildfire they had all these ex-Premier League stars," said the player.
"I think I was a little awestruck facing Figueroa to be honest.
"Even Heskey got on and he's got 60-odd England caps.
"Our side held our own for a solid 20 mins but then we had a man dismissed and it was tough.
"Our group really haven't stopped chatting about it - I was phoning my mother and sibling on the way home.
"The opponents were all friendly, shaking our hands after the match - it was like facing a group of normal fellas.
"Now we are eager for the second fixture."
We Will Still Take the League'
The manager coaches the Collegiate veterans side, who secured the Top Tier title the previous campaign, along with his co-manager.
"Our team scored one-nil up and had a