Meet the Weekend League Club With 1,800 English Top Division Games

How do you enhance a stellar veteran squad that have won back-to-back championships, featuring a league-cup double with thirty wins from 32 games?

Sign a raft of former pro players that have played at the highest tier of club and international soccer as you target additional honors.

One Greater Manchester team has an amateur veterans squad with 9 ex- Premier League players in their present squad.

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

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

The squad list this season features nine ex- top-flight players, with a total over 1,800 Premier League matches.

The high-profile squad also boasts 222 top division goals and 325 global appearances.

The squad include Papiss Cisse, who scored thirty-seven goals in 117 appearances for his former club after signing for them for nine million pounds from German league side SC Freiburg in January 2012.

Cisse had his first appearance for the team in their most recent home-field match against defending title holders Collegiate Old Boys and netted all six goals in a six-two win - including a half-hour opening period triple.

Wythenshawe's team for this season also includes ex- pros such as English and Anfield forward Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley FC winger George Boyd, Everton forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic full-back Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League championship victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

Collectively, the former top-flight players have claimed fifteen significant trophies and transferred for total transfer fees of around £123 million.

Household Names and International Stars

Stephen Ireland began turning out for the side in pre-season this summer through close mate and current team teammate Blake Norton, and the former Republic of Ireland midfielder then invited additional ex-pros, who all play in a midweek nine-a-side match, to join in.

Ex- Senegal striker Oumar Niasse, who netted twelve goals in sixty-five top-flight matches for Everton and even now attends their matches at Goodison Park, also made his first appearance against the opposition - who are located in Liverpool and wear an Blue training kit as their uniform.

"A mate Stephen said 'join and play, it's enjoyable'," said Niasse.

"Then he told me we were playing a team from the city and the surprise I had when I saw them sporting Everton shirts - I say this is strange for me!

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

"The fans who turn up and watch are happy and to make someone's day if they watch us competing there and to pose us questions - it's really about the joy of us getting a place we can play, with organisation of course."

Such is the squad depth at the club, Niasse made his first game at full-back.

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

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

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

Unreal Feeling

Along with the forward's 6 scores on debut, Ireland has netted eight in three games for Wythenshawe, while George Boyd hit 5 on his debut appearance and Joleon Lescott, a defender by position, notched a hat-trick in one match as a striker.

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

One opponent, 38, who plays on the wing for Collegiate OB, came up against ex- Wigan full-back Figueroa on Sunday - and had to tell his nine-year-old boy who Heskey was.

He has appeared at 2 global tournaments for Honduras, in as well as featuring in more than 200 Premier League matches.

"The news was spreading like wildfire they had these ex-Premier League stars," said the player.

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

"Also Heskey got on and he's has over 60 English appearances.

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

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

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

"Now we can't wait for the return match."

We Will Still Win the League'

The manager coaches the Collegiate veterans team, who secured the Premier Division title last season, along with Paul Maguire.

"Our team went 1-0 up and had a