Discover the Sunday Division Team Boasting Nearly Two Thousand English Top Division Matches
What can you improve a excellent veteran squad who have secured consecutive titles, including a double triumph boasting 30 victories from thirty-two games?
Recruit a collection of former professionals who have competed at the elite tier of club and global football as you pursue additional honors.
A Manchester club fields an non-professional veterans squad with nine former Premier League players in their present lineup.
222 Top Division Scores, 325 International Appearances
Wythenshawe Vets Over-35s are located in southern the city and play in the Cheshire-based Vets Division Top Tier.
The squad list this season boasts nine ex- Premier League footballers, with a combined over 1,800 Premier League matches.
This elite squad also boasts over 220 Premier League scores and over 320 global caps.
They include Papiss Cisse, who scored 37 goals in 117 appearances for his former club after joining them for nine million pounds from German league club Freiburg in January 2012.
Cisse had his debut for the team in their most recent home game versus reigning champions their rivals and scored every one of the six goals in a six-two victory - including a 32-minute opening period hat-trick.
Wythenshawe's roster for this season also includes ex- pros such as England and Liverpool striker Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley winger George Boyd, Toffees striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan full-back Maynor Figueroa, City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight title victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.
Collectively, the ex- top-flight footballers have claimed 15 significant honors and moved for combined transfer fees of about £123 million.
Household Figures and International Stars
Ireland began turning out for the side in pre-season this season through close friend and present team player Blake Norton, and the former Republic of Ireland player then invited other ex-pros, who all compete in a midweek nine-a-side game, to join in.
Ex- Senegalese forward Oumar Niasse, who scored 12 goals in 65 top-flight games for Everton and even now attends their home games, also had his debut against Collegiate OB - who are located in the city and wear an Blue warm-up gear as their strip.
"My mate Stephen Ireland told me 'join and play, it's good fun'," commented Niasse.
"Then he informed me we were playing a side from Liverpool and the shock I had when I noticed them sporting Blue shirts - I say this is wrong for me!
"If you still love football and you know you can still play, wherever you can play, what are you going to do?
"The fans who turn up and watch are pleased and to give someone's day if they watch us playing there and to pose us questions - it's really about the joy of us getting somewhere we can play, with structure of course."
Such is the strength in depth at the club, Niasse had his first game at full-back.
"That's a little different but then, I enjoy sprinting and just move forward - I'm not defending that much," he said.
"I tell my centre-back 'I'm not hanging back' and that I'm just going to continue attacking.
"That movement is what I'm looking for. It's enjoyable."
'Surreal Scenario
In addition to the forward's six goals on debut, Stephen Ireland has scored eight in three appearances for Wythenshawe, while Boyd hit five on his debut appearance and Lescott, a defender by position, notched a hat-trick in one game as a striker.
Wythenshawe are top of the Top Division with three victories from three and a goal difference of plus nineteen.
One opponent, 38, who plays on the wing for Collegiate OB, faced ex- Latics defender Figueroa on the weekend - and had to explain his nine-year-old son who Emile Heskey was.
He has played at 2 global tournaments for Honduras, in as well as featuring in more than two hundred top-flight matches.
"It was spreading like wildfire they had all these former top-flight players," said the player.
"I think I was a little awestruck facing him to be honest.
"Even Emile [Heskey] came on and he's got 60-odd England appearances.
"Our side competed well for a solid twenty minutes but then we had a man dismissed and it was hard.
"We literally haven't stopped chatting about it - I was calling my mother and brother on the way home.
"The opponents were all friendly, shaking our hands after the match - it was like playing a group of regular fellas.
"Now we can't wait for the second match."
We Will Still Take the Title'
Andy Kirby coaches the Collegiate veterans team, who secured the Premier Tier championship last season, together with his co-manager.
"Our team scored one-nil ahead and had a