Meet the Weekend Division Club With Over 1,800 English Top Division Matches

How can you enhance a excellent veteran squad that have secured back-to-back championships, featuring a double triumph with 30 wins from thirty-two games?

Bring in a group of former pro players that have played at the top level of club football and international soccer as you target additional trophies.

A Manchester team has an non-professional veterans squad with 9 ex- Premier League players in their present lineup.

222 Premier League Goals, 325 International Appearances

The team Vets Over-35s are located in southern the city and play in the Cheshire-based Vets Division Premier Division.

The squad list this season features nine former Premier League footballers, with a combined nearly 1,800 top-flight matches.

This elite roster also includes 222 Premier League scores and over 320 international appearances.

They include Papiss Cisse, who netted 37 goals in over 100 appearances for his former club after joining them for nine million pounds from Bundesliga club Freiburg in 2012.

He made his debut for Wythenshawe in their most recent home game against reigning champions their rivals and scored every one of the six goals in a six-two victory - including a half-hour opening period triple.

The team for this season also features former professionals such as English and Anfield forward Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley winger George Boyd, Toffees striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic defender Maynor Figueroa, City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight championship victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

Together, the former Premier League players have claimed fifteen major honors and moved for combined transfer sums of about £123m.

Well-Known Figures and Global Players

Stephen Ireland started playing for the side in pre-season this summer through close mate and present Wythenshawe player Blake Norton, and the former Irish player then invited other ex-pros, who all play in a midweek small-sided game, to participate.

Former Senegalese striker Oumar Niasse, who scored twelve scores in 65 Premier League games for Everton and even now goes to their home games, also had his first appearance versus Collegiate OB - who are located in Liverpool and use an Everton training kit as their uniform.

"My mate Stephen said 'join and have a game, it's good fun'," commented the striker.

"Then he informed me we were playing a team from Liverpool and the surprise I had when I saw them wearing Everton shirts - I thought this is strange for me!

"When you still love football and you know you can still play, anywhere you can play, what are you going to choose?

"The fans who turn up and see are pleased and to make a day if they see us playing there and to pose us questions - it's really about the joy of us getting a place we can play, with organisation of course."

So great is the bench strength at the club, he had his first game at defender.

"That's a bit different but then, I enjoy running and just go inside - I'm not defending that much," he added.

"I tell my centre-back 'I'm not hanging back' and that I'm just going to keep running.

"The movement is what I'm looking for. It's enjoyable."

'Surreal Experience

Along with Cisse's six scores on debut, Stephen Ireland has scored 8 in 3 games for the side, while Boyd hit five on his first appearance and Lescott, a defender by trade, notched a triple in one match as a striker.

Wythenshawe are top of the Top Tier with three victories from 3 and a GD of plus nineteen.

Paul Barrow, thirty-eight, who features on the wing for Collegiate OB, faced former Latics defender Figueroa on Sunday - and had to tell his young son who Heskey was.

Figueroa has played at two World Cups for his country, in as well as featuring in over 200 Premier League games.

"It was going round like wildfire they had all these ex-Premier League players," said Barrow.

"I think I was a bit starstruck playing against him to be honest.

"Also Heskey came on and he's got 60-odd England appearances.

"Our side competed well for a solid 20 minutes but then we had a player sent off and it was tough.

"Our group really have not ceased chatting about it - I was calling my mother and brother on the journey home.

"The opponents were all friendly, shaking our hands after the game - it was like facing a bunch of regular guys.

"Now we can't wait for the return match."

'We'll Still Take the Title'

The manager coaches the opposition vets side, who won the Premier Division championship last season, together with Paul Maguire.

"Our team scored one-nil ahead and had a