Meet the Sunday League Squad Boasting Nearly Two Thousand Premier League Games
What do you enhance a outstanding experienced squad who have secured consecutive championships, featuring a double triumph boasting thirty wins from 32 games?
Sign a collection of former professionals who have performed at the highest tier of club football and international football as you pursue further silverware.
One Greater Manchester side boasts an non-professional vets squad with 9 ex- Premier League players in their current roster.
222 Top Division Goals, 325 International Appearances
Wythenshawe Veterans Over 35s are based in south Manchester and play in the Cheshire-based Vets Division Top Tier.
The squad list this season boasts 9 ex- top-flight players, with a total over 1,800 Premier League matches.
This star-studded team also includes 222 top division goals and over 320 international caps.
The squad feature Papiss Cisse, who notched thirty-seven scores in 117 appearances for Newcastle United after joining them for £9m from German league club SC Freiburg in January 2012.
Cisse made his debut for Wythenshawe in their most recent home game versus reigning champions Collegiate Old Boys and netted all six goals in a six-two win - featuring a half-hour opening period hat-trick.
Wythenshawe's squad for this campaign also features ex- pros such as English and Anfield forward Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley FC midfielder George Boyd, Toffees forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic defender Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight title winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.
Collectively, the former top-flight players have claimed fifteen significant honors and transferred for total transfer fees of about £123m.
Famous Names and International Players
Ireland started turning out for the side in preseason this summer through good friend and current team teammate Blake Norton, and the ex- Irish player then asked additional ex-pros, who all compete in a midweek nine-a-side game, to join in.
Former Senegal striker Niasse, who netted 12 goals in sixty-five Premier League games for Everton and even now attends their home games, also had his debut against Collegiate OB - who are based in Liverpool and wear an Blue training kit as their strip.
"A mate Stephen Ireland told me 'join and play, it's good fun'," said Niasse.
"Then he told me we were facing a team from the city and the shock I had when I noticed them wearing Blue shirts - I say this is wrong for me!
"If you still love the game and you know you can still play, wherever you can play, what are you going to choose?
"Those people who turn up and watch are happy and to give someone's day if they watch us competing there and to pose us queries - it's really about the joy of us having somewhere we can enjoy football, with organisation of course."
Such is the squad depth at Wythenshawe, he made his debut at defender.
"That's a little unusual but then, I love sprinting and just move forward - I'm not defending that much," he added.
"I tell my defender 'I'm not hanging back' and that I'm just going to keep attacking.
"That movement is what I'm after. It's good fun."
Unreal Experience
In addition to Cisse's 6 goals on debut, Stephen Ireland has netted eight in three games for the side, while Boyd scored 5 on his first appearance and Joleon Lescott, a defender by position, scored a hat-trick in one match as a striker.
The team are leading of the Top Tier with three victories from 3 and a GD of plus nineteen.
One opponent, 38, who features on the wing for Collegiate OB, faced former Latics full-back Figueroa on Sunday - and had to explain his young son who Heskey was.
Figueroa has played at two World Cups for Honduras, in addition to playing in over 200 Premier League matches.
"It was spreading like wildfire they had these ex-Premier League stars," said Barrow.
"I think I was a little starstruck facing him to be honest.
"Even Heskey got on and he's has over 60 English caps.
"Our side held our own for a good 20 minutes but then we had a player sent off and it was tough.
"We literally haven't stopped talking 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 playing a bunch of regular fellas.
"Now we can't wait for the second match."
We Will Still Win the Title'
The manager manages the Collegiate vets team, who won the Top Division title the previous campaign, together with Paul Maguire.
"We went 1-0 up and had a