Meet the Weekend Division Squad Featuring Nearly Two Thousand Top-Flight Games
What do you boost a stellar experienced squad that have secured back-to-back titles, including a double triumph with 30 wins from thirty-two games?
Sign a collection of former pro players that have performed at the top tier of club and international football as you target further honors.
One Greater Manchester side fields an amateur vets team with 9 ex- top-flight players in their current lineup.
222 Top Division Goals, 325 International Caps
Wythenshawe Vets Over-35s are based in south Manchester and compete in the Cheshire Veterans Division Top Division.
The roster this campaign boasts nine ex- top-flight footballers, with a combined 1,801 Premier League appearances.
The high-profile squad also contains 222 top division scores and over 320 global appearances.
They include one forward, who scored thirty-seven goals in 117 appearances for Newcastle United after moving to them for £9m from Bundesliga side Freiburg in 2012.
Cisse made his first appearance for the team in their most recent home-field game versus defending title holders Collegiate Old Boys and netted all six goals in a 6-2 victory - including a half-hour first-half triple.
The squad for this campaign also includes ex- pros such as England and Anfield forward Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley FC winger George Boyd, Everton striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan full-back Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight championship victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.
Collectively, the ex- top-flight players have claimed 15 big trophies and moved for combined transfer sums of approximately £123m.
Well-Known Figures and International Stars
Ireland started playing for the team during preseason this season through good friend and current Wythenshawe teammate Blake Norton, and the ex- Irish player then invited other former professionals, who all compete in a weekly nine-a-side match, to participate.
Former Senegalese forward Oumar Niasse, who netted 12 goals in 65 Premier League matches for the Toffees and still goes to their home games, also had his debut versus the opposition - who are located in the city and wear an Blue training kit as their strip.
"A friend Stephen Ireland told me 'come and have a game, it's enjoyable'," commented the striker.
"After that he told me we were playing a side from Liverpool and the shock I had when I noticed them sporting Everton kits - I thought this is wrong for me!
"If you still enjoy football and you know you can still play, anywhere you can play, what are you going to do?
"Those people who come and see are pleased and to give someone's moment if they see us playing there and to ask us queries - it's more like the joy of us getting a place we can play, with structure of course."
So great is the bench strength at Wythenshawe, he made his debut at full-back.
"That's a bit unusual but then, I enjoy sprinting and just go inside - I'm not staying back that much," he added.
"I tell my defender 'I'm not staying' and that I'm just going to continue attacking.
"That running is what I'm after. It's enjoyable."
Unreal Experience
In addition to Cisse's six goals on his first game, Ireland has scored eight in three appearances for Wythenshawe, while Boyd scored 5 on his debut appearance and Joleon Lescott, a centre-half by trade, scored a triple in one game up front.
Wythenshawe are leading of the Top Division with 3 wins from 3 and a GD of +19.
Paul Barrow, 38, who features on the wing for Collegiate OB, faced former Latics full-back Figueroa on the weekend - and had to explain his young boy who Emile Heskey was.
Figueroa has appeared at two World Cups for his country, in as well as featuring in over two hundred Premier League matches.
"It was going round like wildfire they had these ex-Premier League players," said Barrow.
"I think I was a bit awestruck facing him to be honest.
"Even Heskey got on and he's has 60-odd England caps.
"Our side competed well for a good 20 mins but then we had a player dismissed and it was hard.
"Our group literally haven't ceased chatting about it - I was calling my mother and brother on the way home.
"They were all friendly, shaking our hands after the match - it was like facing a bunch of normal fellas.
"Now we can't wait for the return match."
'We'll Still Win the Title'
Andy Kirby coaches the opposition veterans team, who won the Premier Division title the previous campaign, along with his co-manager.
"We went one-nil up and had a