Discover the Sunday League Team Boasting Over 1,800 Top-Flight Matches
What can you boost a outstanding veteran side that have claimed back-to-back titles, featuring a double triumph boasting thirty victories from 32 matches?
Recruit a raft of ex- professionals that have competed at the elite level of club football and global football as you pursue more honors.
A Manchester club has an amateur vets squad with 9 ex- top-flight players in their active lineup.
Two Hundred Twenty-Two Top Division Goals, 325 Global Caps
The team Vets Over 35s are situated in south the city and play in the Cheshire-based Vets League Top Tier.
The squad list this season features 9 ex- top-flight players, with a total nearly 1,800 elite matches.
The elite roster also includes 222 Premier League scores and 325 global caps.
The squad feature Papiss Cisse, who netted 37 goals in 117 games for his former club after moving to them for nine million pounds from German league club SC Freiburg in 2012.
Cisse had his first appearance for the team in their most recent home match against reigning title holders Collegiate Old Boys and netted every one of the six goals in a six-two victory - featuring a 32-minute opening period hat-trick.
Wythenshawe's team for this campaign also includes ex- professionals such as England and Anfield forward Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley FC winger George Boyd, Toffees striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan full-back Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight title winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.
Together, the ex- Premier League footballers have secured 15 major honors and moved for combined transfer fees of around £123m.
Household Figures and International Players
Stephen Ireland began turning out for the side in preseason this summer through good mate and present team teammate Blake Norton, and the former Republic of Ireland player then invited other ex-pros, who all compete in a midweek small-sided game, to join in.
Former Senegalese striker Niasse, who netted twelve scores in 65 Premier League games for the Toffees and still attends their home games, also had his debut versus the opposition - who are based in Liverpool and use an Blue training kit as their uniform.
"My friend Stephen told me 'come and play, it's enjoyable'," commented Niasse.
"After that he informed me we were playing a team from Liverpool and the shock I had when I noticed them wearing Everton shirts - I say this is strange for me!
"When you still love football and you know you can still play, wherever you can play, what are you going to do?
"The spectators who come and watch are pleased and to make someone's day if they watch us playing there and to ask us questions - it's more like the joy of us getting a place we can enjoy football, with structure of course."
So great is the bench strength at Wythenshawe, Niasse 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 said.
"I tell my defender 'I'm not staying' and that I'm just going to continue running.
"That movement is what I'm looking for. It's enjoyable."
Unreal Scenario
In addition to the forward's six scores on debut, Ireland has netted eight in 3 games for the side, while Boyd hit five on his first match and Joleon Lescott, a centre-half by position, notched a hat-trick in one game as a striker.
The team are top of the Top Tier with three wins from 3 and a GD of plus nineteen.
Paul Barrow, thirty-eight, who features on the flank for Collegiate OB, faced ex- Wigan full-back Figueroa on Sunday - and had to tell his nine-year-old boy who Heskey was.
Figueroa has played at two global tournaments for Honduras, in as well as featuring in more than two hundred Premier League matches.
"The news was spreading like wildfire they had all these former top-flight stars," remarked the player.
"I think I was a bit starstruck facing Figueroa to be honest.
"Even Emile [Heskey] came on and he's got over 60 England caps.
"Our side held our own for a solid 20 minutes but then we had a player dismissed and it was hard.
"Our group literally have not stopped chatting about it - I was phoning my mum and sibling on the way home.
"They were all friendly, shaking our hands after the match - it was like playing a bunch of regular fellas.
"Now we are eager for the second match."
We Will Still Win the Title'
The manager coaches the Collegiate veterans team, who won the Top Tier title the previous campaign, along with Paul Maguire.
"We went one-nil ahead and had a