Discover this Sunday League Club Boasting Nearly Two Thousand English Top Division Appearances
How can you improve a outstanding veteran team that have won back-to-back titles, featuring a league-cup double boasting thirty wins from 32 games?
Sign a raft of ex- professionals who have played at the highest tier of club and global soccer as you target further trophies.
One Manchester side fields an amateur veterans team with 9 ex- Premier League players in their active squad.
Two Hundred Twenty-Two Premier League Scores, Three Hundred Twenty-Five Global Appearances
The team Veterans Over 35s are based in south Manchester and play in the Cheshire-based Veterans Division Premier Division.
The lineup this season features 9 ex- top-flight footballers, with a total 1,801 elite games.
This high-profile roster also includes 222 top division goals and 325 international appearances.
They include Papiss Cisse, who notched 37 scores in 117 games for his former club after joining them for nine million pounds from Bundesliga side SC Freiburg in 2012.
Cisse had his first appearance for Wythenshawe in their most recent home-field match against defending title holders their rivals and netted all six scores in a six-two win - featuring a half-hour opening period triple.
Wythenshawe's squad for this campaign also includes ex- professionals such as English and Liverpool forward Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley midfielder George Boyd, Toffees striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic defender Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League title winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.
Collectively, the ex- Premier League footballers have claimed fifteen significant honors and moved for total transfer fees of around £123m.
Famous Names and Global Stars
Ireland began playing for the side during preseason this season through good mate and current Wythenshawe teammate Blake Norton, and the ex- Republic of Ireland player then asked additional ex-pros, who all play in a midweek nine-a-side match, to join in.
Ex- Senegalese striker Oumar Niasse, who netted twelve scores in sixty-five top-flight matches for the Toffees and even now goes to their home games, also had his first appearance against Collegiate OB - who are located in the city and use an Everton training kit as their strip.
"A mate Stephen Ireland said 'come and have a game, it's enjoyable'," commented Niasse.
"Then he told me we were facing a team from Liverpool and the shock I had when I noticed them sporting Everton kits - 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?
"The spectators who turn up and see are pleased and to give a day if they see us playing there and to pose us questions - it's really about the pleasure of us getting a place we can enjoy football, with structure of course."
Such is the squad depth at the club, he had his debut at full-back.
"That's a bit unusual but then, I love sprinting and just move forward - I'm not staying back that much," he said.
"I tell my defender 'I'm not staying' and that I'm just going to continue attacking.
"That movement is what I'm after. It's good fun."
'Surreal Experience
In addition to the forward's 6 scores on his first game, Ireland has scored eight in 3 games for Wythenshawe, while Boyd scored five on his first match and Joleon Lescott, a centre-half by position, scored a triple in one game as a striker.
The team are top of the Premier Tier with three wins from three and a goal difference of plus nineteen.
One opponent, 38, who plays on the flank for Collegiate OB, faced ex- Wigan defender Figueroa on the weekend - and had to explain his young boy who Heskey was.
Figueroa has played at two global tournaments for his country, in as well as featuring in over 200 Premier League matches.
"It was spreading like wildfire they had these former top-flight stars," remarked Barrow.
"I felt I was a little starstruck facing him to be honest.
"Even Heskey got on and he's has 60-odd England appearances.
"We competed well for a good 20 minutes but then we had a player dismissed and it was tough.
"We literally haven't stopped talking about it - I was phoning my mother and sibling on the journey home.
"They were all dead sound, shaking our hands after the match - it was like playing a group of normal fellas.
"Now we are eager for the second match."
'We'll Still Win the League'
Andy Kirby manages the Collegiate vets side, who secured the Premier Division championship last season, together with Paul Maguire.
"We scored one-nil up and had a