Meet the Weekend Division Club Featuring Nearly Two Thousand Premier League Games
What can you enhance a outstanding veteran side that have secured back-to-back titles, including a double triumph with 30 victories from 32 games?
Recruit a group of former professionals who have performed at the elite level of club and global football as you pursue further silverware.
A Manchester club fields an non-professional veterans team with 9 former top-flight footballers in their active lineup.
222 Premier League Scores, 325 International Appearances
The team Veterans Over-35s are located in southern Manchester and compete in the Cheshire-based Veterans Division Top Tier.
Their squad list this campaign includes nine ex- top-flight footballers, with a total over 1,800 Premier League matches.
The elite team also includes 222 top division goals and 325 international caps.
The squad feature one forward, who netted thirty-seven goals in 117 appearances for his former club after joining them for £9m from German league club SC Freiburg in 2012.
He made his first appearance for the team in their most recent home-field match versus defending champions Collegiate Old Boys and scored all six goals in a 6-2 victory - including a half-hour first-half hat-trick.
The team for this campaign also features former professionals such as England and Anfield forward Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley winger George Boyd, Everton forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan defender Maynor Figueroa, City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League title winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.
In total, the ex- Premier League footballers have secured 15 significant trophies and transferred for combined transfer sums of around £123m.
Well-Known Figures and International Stars
Stephen Ireland started playing for the side during pre-season this summer through close mate and current Wythenshawe teammate Blake Norton, and the ex- Republic of Ireland midfielder then invited other ex-pros, who all compete in a midweek nine-a-side game, to participate.
Ex- Senegalese forward Niasse, who scored 12 goals in sixty-five Premier League games for the Toffees and even now attends their home games, also had his first appearance versus the opposition - who are based in Liverpool and use an Everton training kit as their uniform.
"My friend Stephen said 'come and play, it's enjoyable'," commented the striker.
"After that he informed me we were facing a side from Liverpool and the surprise I had when I noticed them wearing Blue shirts - I thought this is strange for me!
"When you still enjoy the game and you feel you can still do it, anywhere you can kick a ball, what are you going to do?
"The people who turn up and see are pleased and to give someone's moment if they watch us competing there and to pose us queries - it's really about the joy of us getting a place we can enjoy football, with organisation of course."
Such is the strength in depth at Wythenshawe, Niasse had his debut at full-back.
"That's a little unusual but then, I love sprinting and just move forward - I'm not defending that much," he said.
"I warn my defender 'I'm not staying' and that I'm just going to continue attacking.
"The movement is what I'm looking for. It's enjoyable."
Unreal Experience
In addition to the forward's 6 scores on debut, Stephen Ireland has netted 8 in three games for the side, while George Boyd scored five on his debut match and Lescott, a centre-half by position, scored a hat-trick in one match up front.
Wythenshawe are leading of the Premier Tier with three victories from 3 and a goal difference of plus nineteen.
One opponent, thirty-eight, who features on the wing for Collegiate OB, came up against former Latics defender Figueroa on Sunday - and had to explain his nine-year-old son who Emile Heskey was.
Figueroa has played at two World Cups for his country, in as well as playing in more than two hundred top-flight matches.
"The news was going round like a rumor they had all these former top-flight players," said the player.
"I felt I was a little awestruck playing against Figueroa to be honest.
"Even Heskey got on and he's got over 60 English appearances.
"Our side competed well for a good twenty minutes but then we had a player dismissed and it was hard.
"We literally have not ceased chatting about it - I was phoning my mum and brother on the journey home.
"The opponents were all dead sound, shaking our hands after the match - it was like playing a group of normal guys.
"Now we can't wait for the second fixture."
'We'll Still Take the League'
The manager coaches the Collegiate vets side, who secured the Premier Tier title last season, along with his co-manager.
"We went 1-0 ahead and had a