Discover this Weekend League Club Featuring Nearly Two Thousand Premier League Matches
What do you enhance a excellent veteran side who have won consecutive championships, including a league-cup double boasting 30 wins from thirty-two games?
Recruit a collection of ex- pro players who have played at the highest level of club football and global football as you aim for additional honors.
One Greater Manchester club has an non-professional veterans team with 9 former top-flight footballers in their active squad.
222 Premier League Goals, 325 Global Caps
The team Veterans Over-35s are situated in south Manchester and compete in the Cheshire-based Veterans Division Top Tier.
Their squad list this season includes nine former top-flight players, with a total 1,801 elite appearances.
The star-studded team also contains over 220 top division scores and 325 global appearances.
The squad include one forward, who notched 37 scores in 117 games for Newcastle United after joining them for nine million pounds from German league side SC Freiburg in January 2012.
Cisse made his debut for the team in their last home match against defending title holders their rivals and netted all six scores in a six-two victory - including a half-hour opening period hat-trick.
Wythenshawe's team for this season also features ex- professionals such as England and Liverpool striker Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley FC midfielder George Boyd, Everton forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic full-back Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight title winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.
In total, the ex- top-flight footballers have secured fifteen significant trophies and moved for total transfer sums of approximately £123 million.
Well-Known Names and Global Players
Stephen Ireland started playing for the side during pre-season this summer through good mate and present Wythenshawe player Blake Norton, and the ex- Republic of Ireland midfielder then invited other former professionals, who all compete in a weekly small-sided game, to participate.
Former Senegal forward Oumar Niasse, who scored twelve scores in sixty-five top-flight games for Everton and even now goes to their matches at Goodison Park, also had his first appearance versus the opposition - who are located in the city and use an Blue warm-up gear as their uniform.
"A friend Stephen said 'come and play, it's enjoyable'," said Niasse.
"After that he told me we were facing a side from the city and the surprise I had when I noticed them sporting Everton kits - I thought this is strange for me!
"If you still enjoy football and you know you can still do it, anywhere you can play, what are you going to choose?
"Those spectators who turn up and watch are happy and to make a day if they see us playing there and to ask us queries - it's really about the joy of us having somewhere we can play, with structure of course."
So great is the bench strength at the club, Niasse had his first game at full-back.
"It's a bit unusual but then, I love sprinting and just move inside - I'm not defending that much," he added.
"I warn my centre-back 'I'm not staying' and that I'm just going to continue running.
"The running is what I'm seeking. It's good fun."
'Surreal Feeling
In addition to the forward's 6 scores on his first game, Stephen Ireland has netted eight in three games for Wythenshawe, while George Boyd hit 5 on his first appearance and Joleon Lescott, a centre-half by trade, notched a triple in one game up front.
The team are top of the Premier Tier with three wins from 3 and a GD of +19.
Paul Barrow, thirty-eight, who features on the flank for the opposition, came up against ex- Wigan 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 global tournaments for Honduras, in as well as playing in over 200 Premier League matches.
"It was going round like a rumor they had all these former top-flight players," said Barrow.
"I think I was a bit starstruck facing Figueroa to be honest.
"Even Emile [Heskey] got on and he's got 60-odd English caps.
"We competed well for a solid twenty minutes but then we had a man dismissed and it was tough.
"Our group really have not stopped chatting about it - I was phoning my mother and brother on the way home.
"The opponents were all really nice, shaking our hands after the match - it was like playing a group of regular guys.
"Now we can't wait for the second match."
'We'll Still Win the League'
Andy Kirby manages the opposition veterans team, who won the Premier Division championship the previous campaign, together with his co-manager.
"Our team went one-nil ahead and had a