Meet this Weekend League Club With Nearly Two Thousand Top-Flight Games

How do you enhance a stellar veteran side that have won consecutive championships, including a league-cup double with thirty victories from thirty-two games?

Bring in a raft of ex- pro players who have played at the elite tier of club and international football as you pursue additional honors.

A Greater Manchester team has an amateur veterans team with 9 ex- Premier League footballers in their active squad.

Two Hundred Twenty-Two Top Division Goals, Three Hundred Twenty-Five International Caps

The team Vets Over-35s are situated in south Manchester and compete in the Cheshire Veterans League Top Tier.

Their lineup this season features nine former Premier League players, with a total 1,801 elite appearances.

This star-studded squad also contains 222 Premier League scores and 325 international caps.

The squad include one forward, who netted thirty-seven goals in 117 appearances for his former club after moving to them for nine million pounds from Bundesliga side Freiburg in January 2012.

Cisse made his debut for the team in their last home match versus reigning champions their rivals and netted every one of the six goals in a six-two win - including a half-hour opening period triple.

Wythenshawe's roster for this campaign also features ex- pros such as England and Anfield forward Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley FC midfielder George Boyd, Everton striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan full-back Maynor Figueroa, City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League title winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

In total, the former Premier League players have won fifteen big trophies and transferred for total transfer sums of around £123m.

Well-Known Figures and Global Stars

Stephen Ireland started turning out for the side in preseason this summer through close friend and present team teammate Blake Norton, and the ex- Republic of Ireland player then invited other ex-pros, who all compete in a weekly nine-a-side match, to participate.

Ex- Senegal striker Niasse, who netted twelve goals in 65 Premier League matches for the Toffees and still goes to their home games, also made his first appearance versus Collegiate OB - who are based in Liverpool and wear an Everton warm-up gear as their strip.

"My friend Stephen said 'come and have a game, it's enjoyable'," commented the striker.

"After that he informed me we were playing a team from Liverpool and the shock I had when I noticed them wearing Everton kits - I say this is strange for me!

"When you still love football and you know you can still do it, anywhere you can kick a ball, what are you going to choose?

"The fans who come and see are pleased and to make someone's day if they watch us playing there and to pose us queries - it's more like the joy of us getting somewhere we can enjoy football, with organisation of course."

So great is the squad depth at the club, Niasse made his debut at full-back.

"That's a little unusual but then, I enjoy running and just move forward - I'm not staying back that much," he added.

"I tell my defender 'I'm not hanging back' and that I'm just going to continue running.

"The movement is what I'm looking for. It's enjoyable."

Unreal Experience

In addition to Cisse's six goals on his first game, Ireland has netted 8 in 3 games for Wythenshawe, while Boyd hit 5 on his first match and Lescott, a defender by trade, scored a hat-trick in one game as a striker.

The team are leading of the Top Tier with three victories from 3 and a goal difference of +19.

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 Heskey was.

Figueroa has played at 2 global tournaments for his country, in addition to playing in more than 200 Premier League matches.

"The news was going round like wildfire they had all these former top-flight stars," said Barrow.

"I felt I was a little starstruck facing him to be honest.

"Even Heskey got on and he's got 60-odd English caps.

"We held our own for a good twenty mins but then we had a player dismissed and it was hard.

"Our group really have not stopped talking about it - I was phoning my mother and brother on the way home.

"They were all dead sound, shaking our hands after the game - it was like playing a group of regular fellas.

"Now we are eager for the return fixture."

We Will Still Take the Title'

Andy Kirby manages the Collegiate veterans side, who won the Premier Division championship last season, together with Paul Maguire.

"Our team scored one-nil up and had a