Meet the Sunday League Team Featuring Over 1,800 Premier League Matches

How can you enhance a excellent veteran squad who have claimed consecutive championships, including a league-cup double with thirty victories from 32 matches?

Recruit a group of former pro players who have performed at the elite level of club football and international soccer as you aim for additional honors.

One Greater Manchester club boasts an non-professional veterans team with nine ex- top-flight players in their active squad.

222 Top Division Scores, Three Hundred Twenty-Five International Appearances

Wythenshawe Vets Over-35s are located in south Manchester and compete in the Cheshire-based Vets Division Top Division.

The roster this season includes nine former Premier League players, with a collective 1,801 Premier League matches.

The elite roster also boasts over 220 top division goals and over 320 international appearances.

They feature one forward, who netted thirty-seven goals in over 100 appearances for his former club after moving to them for nine million pounds from German league side Freiburg in 2012.

Cisse had his debut for Wythenshawe in their most recent home match versus reigning champions their rivals and netted every one of the six scores in a 6-2 win - featuring a half-hour first-half hat-trick.

Wythenshawe's roster for this campaign also includes ex- pros such as English and Anfield striker Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley FC winger George Boyd, Everton striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan defender Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight title victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

In total, the former Premier League footballers have claimed fifteen major honors and moved for combined transfer sums of about £123 million.

Famous Figures and International Players

Stephen Ireland started playing for the side in pre-season this season through good friend and current Wythenshawe teammate Blake Norton, and the former Republic of Ireland midfielder then invited other former professionals, who all compete in a weekly nine-a-side match, to join in.

Former Senegalese forward Niasse, who scored 12 scores in sixty-five top-flight matches for Everton and even now attends their matches at Goodison Park, also made his debut versus the opposition - who are located in Liverpool and use an Everton warm-up gear as their uniform.

"A mate Stephen told me 'come and play, it's a laugh'," said Niasse.

"Then he informed me we were facing a team from the city and the shock I had when I noticed them sporting Blue shirts - I thought this is wrong for me!

"When you still enjoy the game and you feel you can still play, anywhere you can play, what are you going to choose?

"Those people who come and see are happy and to give someone's day if they see us competing there and to pose us questions - it's more like the joy of us having a place we can enjoy football, with organisation of course."

So great is the strength in depth at Wythenshawe, Niasse had his debut at full-back.

"It's a bit unusual but then, I love sprinting and just move inside - 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.

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

Unreal Feeling

Along with Cisse's 6 scores on his first game, Ireland has scored eight in 3 games for Wythenshawe, while Boyd hit 5 on his first match and Lescott, a centre-half by position, notched a triple in one game as a striker.

The team are leading of the Premier Division with 3 wins from 3 and a GD of +19.

One opponent, thirty-eight, who features on the wing for Collegiate OB, came up against ex- Wigan defender Figueroa on Sunday - and had to explain his nine-year-old boy who Heskey was.

Figueroa has played at two World Cups for his country, in addition to featuring in over two hundred Premier League games.

"The news was spreading like a rumor they had all these ex-Premier League players," remarked Barrow.

"I think I was a bit awestruck facing him to be honest.

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

"Our side held our own for a good twenty minutes but then we had a man dismissed and it was hard.

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

"The opponents were all dead sound, shaking our hands after the match - it was like playing a bunch of regular fellas.

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

'We'll Still Take the League'

Andy Kirby manages the opposition veterans team, who won the Top Division championship last season, together with his co-manager.

"Our team scored 1-0 up and had a