Meet the Weekend Division Team Boasting Over 1,800 English Top Division Games
What can you improve a stellar veteran side that have secured back-to-back titles, featuring a league-cup double boasting thirty victories from thirty-two games?
Sign a group of former professionals that have performed at the top level of club and international soccer as you target additional silverware.
A Manchester club has an non-professional veterans team with nine ex- top-flight players in their present squad.
222 Top Division Goals, 325 Global Caps
The team Vets Over-35s are situated in southern the city and play in the Cheshire-based Veterans Division Top Division.
The roster this season includes 9 ex- Premier League players, with a combined over 1,800 elite appearances.
The star-studded squad also boasts over 220 top division goals and 325 international appearances.
They include one forward, who scored 37 goals in 117 appearances for Newcastle United after joining them for nine million pounds from Bundesliga side Freiburg in 2012.
Cisse made his debut for Wythenshawe in their most recent home-field game against reigning title holders Collegiate Old Boys and scored every one of the six goals in a six-two victory - including a half-hour first-half hat-trick.
The team for this campaign also features ex- pros such as England and Liverpool striker Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley FC winger George Boyd, Everton forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic full-back Maynor Figueroa, City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League championship victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.
Together, the former top-flight players have claimed fifteen big honors and moved for total transfer fees of about Β£123m.
Well-Known Figures and International Players
Stephen Ireland began turning out for the side during pre-season this summer through close mate and current team teammate Blake Norton, and the ex- Irish player then invited other ex-pros, who all play in a weekly small-sided match, to join in.
Ex- Senegalese forward Niasse, who netted twelve scores in sixty-five top-flight matches for the Toffees and still goes to their matches at Goodison Park, also had his first appearance versus the opposition - who are located in Liverpool and use an Blue training kit as their strip.
"My mate Stephen told me 'join and have a game, it's enjoyable'," commented the striker.
"After that he told me we were playing a side from Liverpool and the shock I had when I noticed them wearing Blue 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 fans who come and watch are happy and to make someone's day if they see us competing there and to pose us queries - it's really about the pleasure of us having a place we can play, with structure of course."
Such is the bench strength at the club, Niasse had his debut at full-back.
"It's a bit different but then, I enjoy running 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 keep attacking.
"That running is what I'm looking for. It's good fun."
Unreal Feeling
In addition to Cisse's six goals on his first game, Stephen Ireland has netted 8 in three appearances for Wythenshawe, while George Boyd hit five on his first match and Lescott, a defender by trade, notched a triple in one match up front.
The team are leading of the Top Division with 3 wins from 3 and a GD of plus nineteen.
One opponent, 38, who plays on the flank for Collegiate OB, came up against ex- Latics full-back Figueroa on Sunday - and had to tell his young son who Emile Heskey was.
He has played at two global tournaments for his country, in addition to playing in over 200 top-flight games.
"It was going round like wildfire they had all these ex-Premier League players," remarked the player.
"I think I was a bit starstruck playing against him to be honest.
"Also Heskey came on and he's has 60-odd England appearances.
"Our side held our own for a good 20 mins but then we had a player sent off and it was hard.
"Our group literally have not stopped chatting about it - I was phoning my mum and sibling on the way home.
"The opponents were all dead sound, shaking our hands after the match - it was like facing a group of regular guys.
"Now we are eager for the second match."
'We'll Still Win the Title'
The manager coaches the opposition vets team, who won the Top Division championship the previous campaign, along with his co-manager.
"We scored one-nil ahead and had a