Meet the Sunday League Club With Over 1,800 Top-Flight Appearances
What can you boost a excellent veteran side that have claimed back-to-back championships, including a league-cup double boasting thirty wins from 32 matches?
Recruit a raft of former professionals that have performed at the elite level of club and international football as you aim for more trophies.
A Greater Manchester team fields an amateur veterans squad with 9 ex- Premier League footballers in their active roster.
222 Top Division Goals, Three Hundred Twenty-Five International Appearances
Wythenshawe Vets Over 35s are based in southern Manchester and play in the Cheshire Veterans Division Premier Division.
Their roster this season includes nine ex- Premier League footballers, with a total nearly 1,800 elite matches.
The star-studded roster also contains over 220 Premier League scores and 325 global appearances.
They include Papiss Cisse, who netted 37 scores in 117 appearances for Newcastle United after joining them for nine million pounds from Bundesliga club SC Freiburg in 2012.
He had his first appearance for the team in their most recent home match versus reigning title holders their rivals and netted every one of the six goals in a 6-2 victory - featuring a 32-minute opening period hat-trick.
The team for this season also features ex- pros such as England and Liverpool forward Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley FC midfielder George Boyd, Everton striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic full-back Maynor Figueroa, City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League title winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.
Together, the ex- top-flight players have won fifteen big honors and moved for total transfer fees of about £123m.
Well-Known Figures and International Players
Ireland started turning out for the side during preseason this summer through good mate and present team teammate Blake Norton, and the former Irish midfielder then asked additional ex-pros, who all play in a midweek small-sided game, to join in.
Former Senegal striker Oumar Niasse, who netted twelve goals in sixty-five top-flight games for Everton and still attends their matches at Goodison Park, also made his debut against the opposition - who are based in Liverpool and wear an Blue warm-up gear as their strip.
"My mate Stephen Ireland told me 'come and have a game, it's a laugh'," commented Niasse.
"Then he told me we were playing a team from Liverpool and the surprise I had when I noticed them sporting Everton shirts - I say this is strange for me!
"If you still enjoy football and you feel you can still do it, wherever you can kick a ball, what are you going to do?
"The people who turn up and watch are happy and to make a moment if they see us competing there and to ask us questions - it's more like the pleasure of us having somewhere we can enjoy football, with structure of course."
So great is the strength in depth at the club, Niasse had his debut at full-back.
"That's a bit different but then, I love running and just go forward - I'm not staying back that much," he added.
"I warn my centre-back 'I'm not staying' and that I'm just going to keep attacking.
"That movement is what I'm looking for. It's enjoyable."
Dreamlike' Experience
In addition to the forward's six goals on his first game, Ireland has netted 8 in 3 appearances for Wythenshawe, while George Boyd hit five on his first appearance and Lescott, a centre-half by trade, scored a hat-trick in one game as a striker.
The team are leading of the Premier Tier with 3 victories from three and a GD of plus nineteen.
One opponent, thirty-eight, who features on the wing for Collegiate OB, faced ex- Latics defender Figueroa on the weekend - and had to tell his young boy who Heskey was.
Figueroa has appeared at 2 World Cups for Honduras, in addition to featuring in over two hundred Premier League games.
"The news was going round like wildfire they had all these former top-flight stars," said Barrow.
"I felt I was a bit awestruck facing him to be honest.
"Also Heskey came on and he's has over 60 England appearances.
"Our side held our own for a solid 20 minutes but then we had a player sent off and it was tough.
"We literally have not stopped chatting about it - I was phoning my mum and sibling on the way home.
"The opponents were all really nice, shaking our hands after the match - it was like playing a group of normal guys.
"Now we are eager for the return fixture."
We Will Still Take the Title'
The manager coaches the Collegiate vets team, who secured the Top Division championship last season, together with his co-manager.
"Our team went 1-0 ahead and had a