Meet the Weekend League Club Boasting Over 1,800 Premier League Matches
What can you boost a excellent experienced team who have claimed back-to-back championships, including a league-cup double with thirty wins from 32 games?
Sign a group of former pro players that have competed at the highest tier of club football and international soccer as you target additional honors.
One Manchester team boasts an non-professional vets team with 9 former top-flight footballers in their active squad.
222 Premier League Goals, Three Hundred Twenty-Five Global Caps
Wythenshawe Veterans Over 35s are situated in south Manchester and play in the Cheshire Veterans League Premier Tier.
Their lineup this campaign features nine ex- top-flight footballers, with a collective over 1,800 top-flight games.
This elite team also boasts 222 top division scores and over 320 global caps.
They include one forward, who scored thirty-seven goals in over 100 appearances for his former club after joining them for £9m from Bundesliga side SC Freiburg in January 2012.
He made his debut for the team in their last home-field game versus defending champions Collegiate Old Boys and netted all six scores in a six-two win - including a half-hour opening period hat-trick.
Wythenshawe's roster for this campaign also features ex- professionals such as England and Liverpool forward Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley FC midfielder George Boyd, Everton forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan defender Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League title victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.
Collectively, the former Premier League footballers have secured fifteen major trophies and transferred for combined transfer fees of around £123m.
Well-Known Figures and Global Players
Stephen Ireland started turning out for the team in preseason this summer through close friend and present Wythenshawe player Blake Norton, and the ex- Irish player then invited other ex-pros, who all compete in a weekly small-sided match, to join in.
Former Senegalese forward Oumar Niasse, who scored 12 goals in sixty-five top-flight matches for Everton and even now attends their matches at Goodison Park, also had his first appearance against Collegiate OB - who are located in Liverpool and use an Blue training kit as their uniform.
"A mate Stephen told me 'come and have a game, it's enjoyable'," said the striker.
"After that he told me we were facing a side from Liverpool and the shock I had when I noticed them sporting Blue kits - I thought this is strange for me!
"When you still enjoy the game and you know you can still play, wherever you can kick a ball, what are you going to do?
"Those spectators who come and watch are happy and to make someone's day if they see us playing there and to pose us queries - it's more like the joy of us getting somewhere we can play, with organisation of course."
So great is the squad depth at Wythenshawe, Niasse had his debut at defender.
"It's a little different but then, I love sprinting and just move forward - I'm not staying back that much," he added.
"I warn my defender 'I'm not staying' and that I'm just going to continue attacking.
"That running is what I'm after. It's good fun."
Dreamlike' Scenario
Along with Cisse's 6 goals on debut, Ireland has scored eight in 3 appearances for Wythenshawe, while George Boyd scored 5 on his first match and Joleon Lescott, a centre-half by trade, notched a hat-trick in one match up front.
The team are top of the Premier Division with 3 wins from three and a goal difference of plus nineteen.
One opponent, 38, who plays on the wing for Collegiate OB, faced ex- Latics full-back Figueroa on the weekend - and had to explain his young boy who Heskey was.
He has appeared at 2 World Cups for Honduras, in addition to featuring in more than two hundred top-flight matches.
"It was going round like a rumor they had all these ex-Premier League players," said Barrow.
"I felt I was a bit awestruck facing him to be honest.
"Even Emile [Heskey] came on and he's got over 60 English caps.
"We competed well for a solid 20 mins but then we had a man sent off and it was tough.
"Our group literally have not stopped talking about it - I was calling my mother and brother on the journey home.
"The opponents were all friendly, shaking our hands after the match - it was like playing a bunch of normal fellas.
"Now we are eager for the return match."
We Will Still Win the Title'
Andy Kirby coaches the opposition vets side, who secured the Premier Division title the previous campaign, along with his co-manager.
"We went one-nil ahead and had a