Meet the Weekend League Club Featuring Over 1,800 Top-Flight Matches
How do you enhance a excellent veteran squad that have secured back-to-back titles, including a double triumph with thirty wins from thirty-two matches?
Recruit a group of ex- pro players that have played at the top tier of club and global football as you aim for additional trophies.
A Manchester side boasts an amateur veterans squad with 9 ex- Premier League players in their current lineup.
222 Premier League Scores, 325 Global Appearances
The team Vets Over 35s are located in southern Manchester and play in the Cheshire-based Vets League Top Division.
The roster this season includes 9 former Premier League footballers, with a combined over 1,800 Premier League matches.
The star-studded squad also contains over 220 Premier League scores and 325 international caps.
They feature one forward, who netted 37 goals in 117 appearances for Newcastle United after signing for them for nine million pounds from Bundesliga side SC Freiburg in January 2012.
Cisse made his debut for the team in their last home game versus defending title holders Collegiate Old Boys and scored every one of the six scores in a 6-2 win - featuring a 32-minute opening period triple.
The team for this campaign also includes former pros such as English and Liverpool forward Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley midfielder George Boyd, Everton striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic full-back Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight title victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.
Together, the ex- Premier League footballers have claimed fifteen big honors and transferred for total transfer sums of about £123m.
Well-Known Figures and Global Stars
Ireland began turning out for the side during preseason this summer through good mate and present Wythenshawe player Blake Norton, and the former Republic of Ireland player then invited other ex-pros, who all compete in a midweek nine-a-side game, to participate.
Ex- Senegal forward Niasse, who netted 12 goals in 65 Premier League games for Everton and still attends their matches at Goodison Park, also made his debut versus the opposition - who are based in Liverpool and use an Everton training kit as their strip.
"A mate Stephen Ireland said 'come and have a game, it's good fun'," commented the striker.
"After that he told me we were playing a side from Liverpool and the shock I had when I saw them sporting Everton kits - I thought this is wrong for me!
"If you still enjoy the game and you know you can still do it, wherever you can play, what are you going to choose?
"Those fans who come and see are happy and to give someone's day if they watch us competing there and to pose us queries - it's more like the joy of us having somewhere we can play, with organisation of course."
Such is the squad depth at the club, he made his first game at full-back.
"That's a bit different but then, I enjoy sprinting and just move forward - I'm not defending that much," he said.
"I warn my defender 'I'm not hanging back' and that I'm just going to continue running.
"That running is what I'm after. It's good fun."
'Surreal Feeling
In addition to Cisse's 6 scores on his first game, Stephen Ireland has scored eight in 3 games for the side, while George Boyd scored five on his debut appearance and Joleon Lescott, a centre-half by position, scored a triple in one game as a striker.
Wythenshawe are leading of the Top Division with 3 victories from 3 and a GD of +19.
Paul Barrow, thirty-eight, who plays on the wing for Collegiate OB, faced ex- Wigan defender Figueroa on the weekend - and had to tell his nine-year-old boy who Emile Heskey was.
He has played at 2 global tournaments for Honduras, in addition to featuring in over two hundred top-flight games.
"The news was spreading like wildfire they had all these former top-flight players," said Barrow.
"I felt I was a little awestruck playing against Figueroa to be honest.
"Also Emile [Heskey] came on and he's has 60-odd England appearances.
"Our side held our own for a solid 20 minutes but then we had a man sent off and it was tough.
"We really haven't ceased talking about it - I was calling my mother and sibling on the way home.
"They were all really nice, shaking our hands after the game - it was like facing a bunch of regular guys.
"Now we are eager for the return fixture."
'We'll Still Take the League'
Andy Kirby coaches the Collegiate veterans side, who secured the Top Tier title last season, together with Paul Maguire.
"We scored one-nil ahead and had a