Meet the Weekend Division Team With 1,800 English Top Division Matches
What can you boost a stellar veteran side who have won consecutive championships, including a league-cup double with thirty wins from 32 games?
Recruit a collection of ex- pro players that have played at the top level of club and global soccer as you aim for further trophies.
A Manchester side boasts an non-professional vets squad with nine former top-flight players in their active lineup.
Two Hundred Twenty-Two Top Division Scores, 325 International Caps
Wythenshawe Veterans Over 35s are based in south the city and compete in the Cheshire-based Veterans Division Premier Division.
The squad list this campaign boasts 9 ex- Premier League footballers, with a collective 1,801 Premier League matches.
This elite squad also contains 222 top division scores and over 320 international caps.
The squad feature one forward, who netted 37 scores in 117 games for his former club after signing for them for £9m from Bundesliga side SC Freiburg in January 2012.
He had his first appearance for Wythenshawe in their last home game versus reigning champions Collegiate Old Boys and netted all six scores in a 6-2 win - featuring a 32-minute opening period triple.
The squad for this campaign also features ex- pros such as England and Anfield striker Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley midfielder George Boyd, Toffees forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan full-back Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight championship winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.
Together, the ex- Premier League footballers have claimed fifteen big trophies and transferred for combined transfer fees of approximately £123 million.
Famous Names and International Stars
Ireland started playing for the team during pre-season this season through good friend and present Wythenshawe teammate Blake Norton, and the ex- Republic of Ireland midfielder then asked other former professionals, who all play in a weekly nine-a-side game, to join in.
Former Senegal striker Oumar Niasse, who scored twelve goals in sixty-five top-flight matches for Everton and even now goes to their matches at Goodison Park, also had his first appearance versus Collegiate OB - who are based in the city and wear an Blue warm-up gear as their uniform.
"My mate Stephen said 'come and play, it's good fun'," commented the striker.
"After that he informed me we were playing a team from Liverpool and the shock I had when I noticed them sporting Everton kits - I thought this is strange for me!
"When 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 people who come and watch are happy and to give a day if they watch us competing there and to ask us queries - it's more like the joy of us getting a place we can play, with organisation of course."
Such is the squad depth at the club, Niasse made his debut at full-back.
"That's a little unusual but then, I love sprinting and just go forward - I'm not staying back that much," he said.
"I tell my defender 'I'm not staying' and that I'm just going to keep running.
"The running is what I'm looking for. It's good fun."
Unreal Feeling
In addition to the forward's six scores on debut, Stephen Ireland has scored eight in 3 appearances for Wythenshawe, while George Boyd scored five on his debut match and Joleon Lescott, a centre-half by trade, notched a hat-trick in one match as a striker.
The team are leading of the Premier Division with three victories from 3 and a goal difference of +19.
Paul Barrow, thirty-eight, who features on the wing for Collegiate OB, faced ex- Wigan full-back Maynor Figueroa on the weekend - 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 two hundred top-flight games.
"It was going round like a rumor they had all these ex-Premier League stars," said Barrow.
"I think I was a little awestruck playing against Figueroa to be honest.
"Even Heskey came on and he's has 60-odd English caps.
"We competed well for a good 20 minutes but then we had a man sent off and it was tough.
"We literally have not ceased chatting about it - I was calling my mum and sibling on the journey home.
"The opponents were all really nice, shaking our hands after the game - it was like facing a group of regular guys.
"Now we are eager for the second match."
'We'll Still Take the Title'
The manager coaches the Collegiate veterans side, who secured the Top Tier championship last season, along with Paul Maguire.
"We scored one-nil ahead and had a