Meet the Weekend Division Team Featuring Nearly Two Thousand Premier League Matches

How do you boost a stellar veteran side that have secured consecutive championships, featuring a league-cup double boasting thirty wins from thirty-two matches?

Recruit a collection of former professionals who have performed at the highest level of club and international soccer as you target further silverware.

A Manchester side has an amateur vets team with 9 ex- top-flight footballers in their active lineup.

222 Top Division Goals, Three Hundred Twenty-Five Global Caps

The team Vets Over-35s are located in southern Manchester and compete in the Cheshire Vets Division Premier Division.

Their squad list this campaign features nine ex- top-flight players, with a total nearly 1,800 top-flight games.

The elite squad also boasts over 220 top division goals and over 320 global appearances.

They include one forward, who scored 37 scores in over 100 games for his former club after moving to them for nine million pounds from German league side SC Freiburg in 2012.

Cisse had his debut for Wythenshawe in their most recent home game versus defending champions their rivals and netted all six goals in a 6-2 win - including a 32-minute first-half triple.

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

Together, the ex- Premier League players have claimed 15 big honors and transferred for combined transfer fees of around £123 million.

Well-Known Names and International Players

Stephen Ireland started playing for the team in pre-season this season through good friend and present team player Blake Norton, and the former Irish midfielder then invited other former professionals, who all play in a midweek small-sided game, to join in.

Former Senegalese striker Oumar Niasse, who netted twelve goals in sixty-five Premier League matches for the Toffees and still goes to their matches at Goodison Park, also had his debut against the opposition - who are based in Liverpool and use an Everton warm-up gear as their strip.

"A friend Stephen said 'come and have a game, it's good fun'," commented Niasse.

"Then he informed me we were facing a side from Liverpool and the shock I had when I noticed them wearing Blue kits - I thought this is strange for me!

"If you still love football and you know you can still do it, wherever you can play, what are you going to choose?

"Those people who turn up and see are pleased and to give a day if they see us competing there and to pose us questions - it's really about the pleasure of us getting a place we can enjoy football, with structure of course."

Such is the strength in depth at Wythenshawe, Niasse made his debut at defender.

"That's a little unusual but then, I enjoy sprinting and just go inside - I'm not defending that much," he said.

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

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

'Surreal Feeling

In addition to the forward's 6 goals on debut, Stephen Ireland has scored 8 in 3 appearances for the side, while George Boyd scored five on his first appearance and Joleon Lescott, a centre-half by trade, scored a hat-trick in one game as a striker.

The team are top of the Premier Tier with 3 wins from three and a goal difference of plus nineteen.

Paul Barrow, 38, who plays on the wing for Collegiate OB, came up against ex- Latics full-back Figueroa on Sunday - and had to explain his young son who Emile Heskey was.

He has appeared at 2 global tournaments for his country, in addition to featuring in more than 200 Premier League games.

"It was going round like a rumor they had these former top-flight stars," said the player.

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

"Also Emile [Heskey] got on and he's has over 60 England appearances.

"Our side competed well for a solid twenty mins but then we had a man dismissed and it was tough.

"We really haven't ceased chatting about it - I was calling my mother and brother on the journey home.

"They were all friendly, shaking our hands after the match - it was like playing a bunch of regular fellas.

"Now we are eager for the second fixture."

'We'll Still Take the League'

The manager manages the Collegiate vets team, who secured the Premier Tier title last season, together with his co-manager.

"Our team went one-nil ahead and had a