Discover the Weekend League Squad Featuring Nearly Two Thousand Premier League Appearances
What do you boost a outstanding experienced side that have secured consecutive titles, featuring a double triumph boasting 30 wins from thirty-two matches?
Recruit a collection of former pro players who have played at the elite level of club and global soccer as you pursue further trophies.
One Greater Manchester team fields an amateur veterans squad with nine former Premier League players in their present lineup.
222 Premier League Goals, 325 International Appearances
Wythenshawe Vets Over-35s are situated in southern the city and compete in the Cheshire Vets Division Top Division.
The roster this season includes 9 former Premier League footballers, with a collective over 1,800 Premier League appearances.
The elite team also includes over 220 Premier League scores and over 320 international caps.
They feature one forward, who notched 37 scores in 117 games for his former club after signing for them for £9m from German league club Freiburg in 2012.
He had his first appearance for the team in their most recent home game versus reigning champions Collegiate Old Boys and scored every one of the six scores in a 6-2 win - including a 32-minute opening period hat-trick.
The team for this season also features former pros such as England and Liverpool striker Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley winger George Boyd, Toffees striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan full-back Maynor Figueroa, City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League title winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.
Together, the former top-flight footballers have claimed 15 significant trophies and moved for combined transfer sums of approximately £123m.
Well-Known Names and International Stars
Stephen Ireland began playing for the team in pre-season this summer through close mate and present Wythenshawe player Blake Norton, and the former Republic of Ireland player then invited additional former professionals, who all compete in a weekly small-sided match, to join in.
Former Senegal forward Oumar Niasse, who scored 12 scores in 65 Premier League games for the Toffees and even now attends their home games, also had his debut against Collegiate OB - who are based in Liverpool and wear an Everton warm-up gear as their strip.
"My mate Stephen Ireland said 'join and have a game, it's a laugh'," said the striker.
"Then he told me we were playing a side from the city and the shock I had when I noticed them wearing Everton shirts - I say this is wrong for me!
"If you still love football and you know you can still do it, wherever you can kick a ball, what are you going to choose?
"Those spectators who come and watch are happy and to give someone's moment if they watch us competing there and to pose us questions - it's really about the pleasure of us having somewhere we can play, with organisation of course."
So great is the bench strength at Wythenshawe, Niasse had his debut at full-back.
"That's a little unusual but then, I love running and just go forward - I'm not defending that much," he said.
"I warn my defender 'I'm not staying' and that I'm just going to keep running.
"That movement is what I'm after. It's enjoyable."
Unreal Feeling
Along with the forward's six goals on his first game, Stephen Ireland has scored 8 in three appearances for Wythenshawe, while Boyd hit 5 on his debut appearance and Joleon Lescott, a defender by trade, notched a hat-trick in one match as a striker.
The team are top of the Premier Tier with three wins from three and a goal difference of +19.
One opponent, thirty-eight, who plays on the flank for the opposition, faced ex- Wigan full-back Figueroa on Sunday - and had to explain his nine-year-old boy who Emile Heskey was.
Figueroa has appeared at 2 World Cups for Honduras, in addition to featuring in over 200 Premier League games.
"The news was spreading like a rumor they had all these former top-flight players," remarked the player.
"I felt I was a bit awestruck playing against Figueroa to be honest.
"Also Heskey got on and he's got over 60 English appearances.
"We held our own for a solid twenty mins but then we had a player sent off and it was hard.
"Our group literally haven't ceased chatting about it - I was phoning my mother and brother on the journey home.
"They were all dead sound, shaking our hands after the game - it was like facing a group of normal guys.
"Now we are eager for the second match."
'We'll Still Win the League'
Andy Kirby coaches the opposition veterans team, who secured the Top Tier championship last season, together with his co-manager.
"We went 1-0 ahead and had a