Meet this Sunday League Team With 1,800 Premier League Matches
What can you enhance a stellar veteran side who have won back-to-back titles, including a league-cup double boasting 30 victories from thirty-two games?
Sign a collection of ex- professionals that have performed at the highest level of club and global soccer as you pursue further trophies.
One Greater Manchester team boasts an non-professional vets squad with 9 ex- top-flight footballers in their present lineup.
222 Premier League Goals, 325 Global Caps
The team Vets Over 35s are situated in southern the city and play in the Cheshire-based Vets Division Premier Tier.
The squad list this season includes nine ex- Premier League footballers, with a total over 1,800 top-flight appearances.
The star-studded squad also contains over 220 top division scores and over 320 international caps.
The squad feature Papiss Cisse, who netted 37 scores in 117 appearances for Newcastle United after signing for them for £9m from Bundesliga side Freiburg in 2012.
Cisse had his first appearance for Wythenshawe in their last home-field game versus defending title holders their rivals and netted all six goals in a six-two victory - featuring a 32-minute opening period hat-trick.
The roster for this season also includes former pros such as English and Liverpool forward Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley FC winger George Boyd, Everton striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic defender Maynor Figueroa, City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League championship winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.
Together, the former Premier League players have secured fifteen major trophies and transferred for total transfer fees of around £123m.
Household Figures and International Players
Stephen Ireland began playing for the side in preseason this summer through good mate and current team teammate Blake Norton, and the ex- Republic of Ireland player then asked additional ex-pros, who all compete in a midweek small-sided game, to participate.
Former Senegal forward Oumar Niasse, who netted twelve scores in sixty-five top-flight matches for Everton and still attends their matches at Goodison Park, also had his first appearance versus Collegiate OB - who are based in Liverpool and wear an Everton training kit as their strip.
"A mate Stephen told me 'come and have a game, it's a laugh'," commented Niasse.
"After that he told me we were facing a side from Liverpool and the shock I had when I noticed them sporting Blue shirts - I say this is strange for me!
"When you still enjoy the game and you know you can still play, anywhere you can kick a ball, what are you going to choose?
"The fans who turn up and see are pleased and to make someone's day if they watch us competing there and to ask us queries - it's really about the pleasure of us having somewhere we can enjoy football, with structure of course."
Such is the bench strength at Wythenshawe, he had his debut at defender.
"It's a little different but then, I love running and just move forward - I'm not staying back that much," he said.
"I warn my centre-back 'I'm not hanging back' and that I'm just going to continue attacking.
"That running is what I'm looking for. It's good fun."
'Surreal Experience
In addition to Cisse's six scores on his first game, Stephen Ireland has netted eight in three appearances for Wythenshawe, while Boyd hit five on his debut appearance and Joleon Lescott, a defender by trade, scored a hat-trick in one game as a striker.
The team are top of the Premier Division with 3 victories from 3 and a goal difference of +19.
One opponent, 38, who plays on the flank for the opposition, came up against ex- Latics full-back Maynor Figueroa on the weekend - and had to explain his nine-year-old son who Emile Heskey was.
Figueroa has appeared at 2 World Cups for his country, in as well as playing in more than 200 Premier League matches.
"The news was spreading like a rumor they had all these ex-Premier League players," remarked Barrow.
"I felt I was a bit starstruck playing against him to be honest.
"Also Heskey came on and he's has over 60 English appearances.
"We competed well for a solid twenty mins but then we had a player dismissed and it was tough.
"Our group literally have not stopped talking about it - I was calling my mother and brother on the journey home.
"They were all friendly, shaking our hands after the game - it was like playing a bunch of normal fellas.
"Now we can't wait for the return fixture."
'We'll Still Win the League'
Andy Kirby coaches the Collegiate vets side, who secured the Top Tier title the previous campaign, along with Paul Maguire.
"Our team went one-nil up and had a