Meet this Weekend League Squad With 1,800 Top-Flight Games

How can you boost a outstanding experienced side that have claimed consecutive titles, including a league-cup double boasting 30 wins from thirty-two matches?

Bring in a group of former professionals who have played at the top tier of club football and global football as you aim for more honors.

A Manchester club has an amateur veterans squad with 9 former Premier League players in their present roster.

222 Top Division Scores, 325 Global Caps

Wythenshawe Veterans Over 35s are located in southern Manchester and play in the Cheshire-based Vets Division Top Tier.

Their roster this season features nine former top-flight players, with a combined 1,801 top-flight games.

This elite team also boasts 222 top division scores and 325 global caps.

They feature Papiss Cisse, who scored 37 scores in 117 games for his former club after signing for them for £9m from German league side Freiburg in 2012.

Cisse had his debut for Wythenshawe in their last home game against defending title holders Collegiate Old Boys and netted every one of the six goals in a six-two victory - featuring a 32-minute opening period triple.

Wythenshawe's team for this campaign also includes former pros such as English and Liverpool forward Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley midfielder George Boyd, Everton striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic full-back Maynor Figueroa, City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League championship victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

Together, the former top-flight footballers have secured 15 major trophies and moved for combined transfer sums of approximately £123 million.

Famous Figures and International Players

Ireland began playing for the side in preseason this summer through good friend and present team player Blake Norton, and the ex- Irish player then invited other ex-pros, who all compete in a weekly nine-a-side match, to join in.

Ex- Senegalese forward Oumar Niasse, who scored twelve scores in 65 top-flight games for the Toffees and even now goes to their home games, also made his debut against Collegiate OB - who are located in Liverpool and wear an Blue warm-up gear as their strip.

"A mate Stephen Ireland told me 'join and have a game, it's a laugh'," commented Niasse.

"After that he informed me we were facing a team from Liverpool and the shock I had when I saw them wearing Everton kits - I thought this is wrong for me!

"If you still love football and you know you can still play, wherever you can kick a ball, what are you going to choose?

"Those fans who come and watch are happy and to give a day if they watch us competing there and to pose us queries - it's more like the joy of us getting a place we can play, with structure of course."

Such is the bench strength at Wythenshawe, Niasse had his debut at full-back.

"That's a bit unusual but then, I love sprinting and just move forward - I'm not defending that much," he said.

"I warn my centre-back 'I'm not staying' and that I'm just going to continue running.

"The running is what I'm after. It's enjoyable."

Unreal Scenario

Along with Cisse's six goals on his first game, Stephen Ireland has scored eight in three appearances for Wythenshawe, while George Boyd scored five on his first appearance and Joleon Lescott, a defender by trade, notched a triple in one match as a striker.

Wythenshawe are top of the Top Tier with 3 victories from three and a goal difference of plus nineteen.

One opponent, 38, who features on the flank for Collegiate OB, came up against ex- Wigan defender Figueroa on Sunday - and had to explain his young boy who Emile Heskey was.

He has appeared at two World Cups for his country, in as well as featuring in more than 200 top-flight games.

"The news was going round like a rumor they had these ex-Premier League players," said the player.

"I think I was a bit starstruck facing Figueroa to be honest.

"Even Emile [Heskey] came on and he's has 60-odd English caps.

"Our side held our own for a solid 20 minutes but then we had a player sent off and it was hard.

"Our group literally have not stopped chatting about it - I was phoning my mum and brother on the journey home.

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

"Now we can't wait for the second fixture."

'We'll Still Win the League'

The manager manages the opposition veterans side, who secured the Top Tier title the previous campaign, along with his co-manager.

"We went one-nil up and had a