Meet the Sunday League Squad Boasting Nearly Two Thousand English Top Division Games
What can you boost a excellent experienced squad who have claimed consecutive championships, featuring a league-cup double with thirty victories from 32 matches?
Bring in a group of former pro players that have performed at the elite tier of club and international football as you aim for further honors.
One Manchester side boasts an non-professional vets team with nine former Premier League footballers in their active lineup.
Two Hundred Twenty-Two Premier League Goals, 325 Global Appearances
Wythenshawe Veterans Over-35s are based in south the city and compete in the Cheshire Veterans Division Premier Division.
Their lineup this campaign boasts 9 ex- Premier League footballers, with a collective over 1,800 Premier League appearances.
This elite roster also includes 222 top division goals and 325 global caps.
The squad feature one forward, who scored 37 goals in over 100 games for Newcastle United after moving to them for nine million pounds from German league club Freiburg in 2012.
Cisse had his first appearance for Wythenshawe in their most recent home-field game against reigning champions Collegiate Old Boys and scored every one of the six scores in a six-two win - including a 32-minute opening period hat-trick.
The roster for this season also features former pros such as English and Liverpool striker Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley FC midfielder George Boyd, Toffees striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan full-back Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League championship victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.
Collectively, the ex- Premier League footballers have claimed fifteen big trophies and transferred for total transfer fees of approximately £123 million.
Famous Names and International Stars
Ireland started playing for the team in preseason this season through close mate and present Wythenshawe teammate Blake Norton, and the ex- Republic of Ireland player then invited additional ex-pros, who all play in a weekly nine-a-side game, to join in.
Former Senegal striker Oumar Niasse, who scored twelve goals in sixty-five Premier League games for Everton and still goes to their home games, also had his first appearance versus the opposition - who are based in Liverpool and wear an Everton warm-up gear as their strip.
"A mate Stephen said 'come and play, it's enjoyable'," commented the striker.
"Then he told me we were playing a side from the city and the surprise I had when I saw them wearing Blue shirts - I say this is strange for me!
"When you still enjoy football and you feel you can still do it, anywhere you can kick a ball, what are you going to choose?
"The fans who turn up and watch are pleased and to give a day if they watch us competing there and to ask us queries - it's more like the joy of us having a place we can enjoy football, with organisation of course."
Such is the squad depth at the club, he made his first game at defender.
"It's a little different but then, I love sprinting and just move forward - I'm not defending that much," he added.
"I tell my centre-back 'I'm not staying' and that I'm just going to continue running.
"The movement is what I'm after. It's good fun."
Dreamlike' Feeling
In addition to Cisse's 6 scores on debut, Stephen Ireland has scored eight in 3 appearances for Wythenshawe, while George Boyd hit 5 on his first appearance and Joleon Lescott, a defender by position, scored a triple in one game as a striker.
The team are leading of the Top Division with 3 wins from 3 and a goal difference of plus nineteen.
One opponent, 38, who plays on the flank for the opposition, faced ex- Wigan full-back Maynor Figueroa on Sunday - and had to tell his nine-year-old son who Heskey was.
Figueroa has appeared at 2 World Cups for his country, in as well as playing in more than two hundred top-flight games.
"It was spreading like a rumor they had all these former top-flight players," said Barrow.
"I felt I was a little starstruck facing Figueroa to be honest.
"Even Emile [Heskey] came on and he's got over 60 English appearances.
"Our side held our own for a solid twenty mins but then we had a man sent off and it was hard.
"We literally haven't ceased chatting about it - I was phoning my mother and sibling on the way home.
"The opponents were all really nice, shaking our hands after the game - it was like playing a group of regular guys.
"Now we are eager for the second fixture."
We Will Still Take the Title'
The manager coaches the opposition veterans team, who secured the Top Division title last season, together with Paul Maguire.
"We went 1-0 ahead and had a