Discover the Weekend League Club With Nearly Two Thousand English Top Division Appearances
How do you enhance a excellent experienced team who have secured back-to-back championships, including a league-cup double boasting thirty victories from thirty-two games?
Sign a raft of ex- pro players that have played at the elite tier of club and international soccer as you aim for further trophies.
One Greater Manchester side fields an amateur veterans squad with 9 former top-flight players in their current lineup.
Two Hundred Twenty-Two Top Division Goals, 325 Global Caps
The team Veterans Over-35s are located in south Manchester and play in the Cheshire Veterans League Premier Division.
The squad list this campaign features nine ex- Premier League players, with a total nearly 1,800 top-flight matches.
The star-studded squad also includes over 220 Premier League scores and 325 global appearances.
They include Papiss Cisse, who scored thirty-seven goals in 117 games for his former club after joining them for nine million pounds from Bundesliga side SC Freiburg in January 2012.
He had his debut for Wythenshawe in their most recent home match versus defending champions their rivals and netted every one of the six goals in a six-two win - including a 32-minute first-half hat-trick.
Wythenshawe's roster for this season also features former professionals such as England and Anfield striker Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley FC winger George Boyd, Everton forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan full-back Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight title winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.
Together, the former Premier League players have won 15 big trophies and moved for total transfer sums of about £123 million.
Famous Names and International Players
Ireland started turning out for the team in preseason this season through good mate and present team player Blake Norton, and the ex- Republic of Ireland midfielder then asked additional former professionals, who all play in a weekly nine-a-side game, to join in.
Ex- Senegalese forward Niasse, who netted 12 scores in 65 Premier League games for the Toffees and still goes to their home games, also had his debut versus the opposition - who are based in Liverpool and wear an Blue warm-up gear as their uniform.
"My mate Stephen Ireland said 'join and have a game, it's good fun'," said the striker.
"Then he told me we were playing a side from Liverpool and the shock I had when I saw them wearing Blue shirts - I say this is wrong for me!
"When you still love the game and you know you can still play, wherever you can kick a ball, what are you going to do?
"Those people who turn up and see are pleased and to make someone's day if they see us competing there and to pose us queries - it's more like the joy of us getting a place we can enjoy football, with organisation of course."
Such is the squad depth at Wythenshawe, he had his debut at full-back.
"That's a bit unusual but then, I enjoy running 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 keep running.
"That movement is what I'm looking for. It's enjoyable."
'Surreal Feeling
Along with the forward's six scores on his first game, Stephen Ireland has netted 8 in 3 games for the side, while Boyd scored five on his debut appearance and Lescott, a centre-half by trade, scored a triple in one match up front.
The team are top of the Premier Tier with three wins from 3 and a goal difference of plus nineteen.
One opponent, 38, who plays on the wing for Collegiate OB, faced ex- Wigan full-back Maynor Figueroa on the weekend - and had to explain his nine-year-old boy who Emile Heskey was.
Figueroa has played at 2 global tournaments for his country, in as well as featuring in over 200 top-flight matches.
"The news was spreading like a rumor they had these former top-flight stars," remarked the player.
"I felt I was a bit awestruck playing against him to be honest.
"Even Heskey came on and he's got 60-odd English caps.
"We competed well for a good 20 minutes but then we had a man sent off and it was tough.
"We really have not stopped chatting about it - I was calling my mother and sibling on the journey home.
"They were all really nice, shaking our hands after the match - it was like facing a group of regular guys.
"Now we are eager for the return fixture."
'We'll Still Take the League'
Andy Kirby manages the Collegiate veterans team, who won the Premier Tier title the previous campaign, together with his co-manager.
"We scored one-nil ahead and had a