Discover the Weekend League Squad With Nearly Two Thousand English Top Division Appearances
What do you boost a stellar experienced team that have secured consecutive championships, featuring a league-cup double with thirty wins from thirty-two games?
Recruit a collection of former professionals that have competed at the highest tier of club football and international soccer as you target additional silverware.
A Manchester club fields an amateur vets team with 9 former Premier League players in their current lineup.
Two Hundred Twenty-Two Premier League Goals, Three Hundred Twenty-Five International Appearances
The team Veterans Over-35s are based in south the city and play in the Cheshire-based Veterans League Top Tier.
The lineup this campaign includes 9 ex- Premier League footballers, with a combined over 1,800 top-flight matches.
This high-profile squad also boasts over 220 top division goals and over 320 international appearances.
They include one forward, who netted 37 scores in over 100 games for Newcastle United after signing for them for £9m from German league side Freiburg in January 2012.
Cisse made his first appearance for Wythenshawe in their last home match against reigning title holders Collegiate Old Boys and scored every one of the six scores in a 6-2 victory - featuring a 32-minute opening period hat-trick.
Wythenshawe's squad for this campaign also features former professionals such as English and Liverpool forward Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley winger George Boyd, Everton striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan defender Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League championship victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.
Together, the former Premier League players have claimed fifteen major trophies and transferred for combined transfer fees of around £123m.
Famous Figures and International Stars
Stephen Ireland began turning out for the team during pre-season this season through close friend and current Wythenshawe teammate Blake Norton, and the ex- Republic of Ireland midfielder then asked other former professionals, who all play in a midweek nine-a-side match, to join in.
Ex- Senegalese striker Oumar Niasse, who scored twelve goals in 65 top-flight matches for Everton and still attends their home games, also made his first appearance versus Collegiate OB - who are located in Liverpool and wear an Blue training kit as their strip.
"My mate Stephen Ireland told me 'join and have a game, it's a laugh'," commented Niasse.
"After that he told me we were playing a team from Liverpool and the surprise I had when I saw them sporting Blue kits - I say this is wrong for me!
"If you still love football and you feel you can still do it, anywhere you can play, what are you going to choose?
"The spectators who turn up and watch are happy and to give a moment if they see us competing there and to ask us questions - it's really about the joy of us getting a place we can play, with organisation of course."
So great is the strength in depth at the club, Niasse made his debut at defender.
"That's a bit different but then, I enjoy sprinting and just go forward - I'm not defending that much," he said.
"I tell my defender 'I'm not staying' and that I'm just going to continue running.
"That movement is what I'm seeking. It's good fun."
Dreamlike' Scenario
In addition to Cisse's six goals on his first game, Stephen Ireland has scored 8 in three appearances for Wythenshawe, while Boyd scored 5 on his debut appearance and Lescott, a centre-half by position, scored a hat-trick in one match up front.
Wythenshawe are leading of the Premier Tier with three wins from three and a GD of +19.
One opponent, thirty-eight, who features on the flank for Collegiate OB, faced former Wigan full-back Figueroa on the weekend - and had to tell his young son who Heskey was.
He has appeared at two global tournaments for Honduras, in as well as featuring in over two hundred top-flight games.
"It was spreading like a rumor they had all these former top-flight stars," said the player.
"I think I was a bit awestruck playing against him to be honest.
"Even Heskey came on and he's has 60-odd England caps.
"Our side held our own for a good twenty mins but then we had a man dismissed and it was hard.
"We literally haven't ceased chatting about it - I was calling my mother and brother on the way home.
"The opponents were all friendly, shaking our hands after the game - it was like facing a bunch of normal fellas.
"Now we are eager for the return match."
'We'll Still Take the League'
Andy Kirby coaches the Collegiate vets team, who won the Top Tier championship last season, along with Paul Maguire.
"Our team went 1-0 ahead and had a