Discover this Weekend League Club With 1,800 English Top Division Games
How do you boost a outstanding veteran side that have secured back-to-back championships, featuring a double triumph boasting 30 victories from 32 matches?
Sign a collection of ex- professionals that have played at the highest level of club football and global soccer as you pursue further honors.
One Manchester side has an non-professional vets team with 9 former Premier League footballers in their current lineup.
Two Hundred Twenty-Two Top Division Scores, Three Hundred Twenty-Five Global Caps
Wythenshawe Veterans Over-35s are located in southern Manchester and play in the Cheshire-based Veterans Division Premier Division.
The lineup this season boasts 9 former top-flight players, with a combined 1,801 top-flight appearances.
The high-profile roster also boasts 222 Premier League scores and over 320 international appearances.
The squad feature one forward, who notched thirty-seven scores in 117 appearances for Newcastle United after moving to them for £9m from German league side Freiburg in 2012.
He had his first appearance for the team in their most recent home game against defending title holders Collegiate Old Boys and scored all six goals in a six-two victory - including a half-hour opening period triple.
Wythenshawe's roster for this season also includes former pros such as England and Anfield forward Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley winger George Boyd, Toffees striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic defender Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League championship victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.
Collectively, the former Premier League players have secured 15 significant honors and transferred for combined transfer fees of around £123 million.
Household Figures and International Players
Stephen Ireland began turning out for the side in pre-season this summer through good mate and current Wythenshawe player Blake Norton, and the former Irish midfielder then asked other former professionals, who all compete in a weekly small-sided match, to participate.
Ex- Senegalese striker Niasse, who scored 12 goals in sixty-five Premier League games for Everton and even now attends their matches at Goodison Park, also had his first appearance against Collegiate OB - who are based in the city and wear an Blue warm-up gear as their uniform.
"A friend Stephen Ireland said 'join and play, it's enjoyable'," commented Niasse.
"After that he told me we were playing a team from the city and the surprise I had when I noticed them sporting Blue shirts - I thought this is wrong for me!
"When you still love football and you know you can still do it, anywhere you can play, what are you going to do?
"Those people who turn up and watch are happy and to make someone's moment if they see us competing there and to ask us queries - it's more like the pleasure of us getting a place we can enjoy football, with structure of course."
Such is the squad depth at the club, Niasse made his first game at defender.
"It's a little different but then, I love running and just go inside - I'm not staying back that much," he added.
"I warn my centre-back 'I'm not hanging back' and that I'm just going to continue attacking.
"That movement is what I'm seeking. It's good fun."
Dreamlike' Experience
Along with the forward's 6 goals on debut, Ireland has scored eight in 3 appearances for the side, while Boyd hit five on his first appearance and Joleon Lescott, a centre-half by trade, notched a triple in one match up front.
The team are top of the Top Division with 3 wins from three and a GD of plus nineteen.
Paul Barrow, 38, who plays on the flank for the opposition, came up against former Wigan defender Figueroa on Sunday - and had to tell his young boy who Emile Heskey was.
He has appeared at two global tournaments for Honduras, in as well as playing in more than 200 top-flight games.
"The news was going round like wildfire they had all these ex-Premier League stars," said Barrow.
"I felt I was a little awestruck playing against Figueroa to be honest.
"Also Heskey got on and he's has over 60 England appearances.
"We held our own for a solid twenty mins but then we had a player dismissed and it was tough.
"We really have not stopped talking about it - I was phoning my mother and brother on the journey home.
"The opponents were all friendly, shaking our hands after the game - it was like playing a group of normal fellas.
"Now we can't wait for the return match."
We Will Still Take the Title'
Andy Kirby coaches the Collegiate vets team, who secured the Premier Division championship the previous campaign, along with Paul Maguire.
"We went 1-0 up and had a