Meet the Sunday Division Squad Featuring Nearly Two Thousand English Top Division Appearances
How can you boost a outstanding experienced squad that have secured back-to-back titles, featuring a league-cup double boasting 30 victories from thirty-two matches?
Recruit a group of former pro players that have performed at the top level of club football and international football as you aim for further honors.
One Greater Manchester side fields an non-professional veterans team with 9 former top-flight footballers in their present roster.
Two Hundred Twenty-Two Top Division Goals, Three Hundred Twenty-Five Global Caps
The team Vets Over-35s are situated in southern the city and play in the Cheshire Veterans League Premier Division.
The lineup this season boasts 9 former Premier League players, with a total nearly 1,800 Premier League games.
This elite roster also includes over 220 top division scores and over 320 global caps.
The squad feature one forward, who scored thirty-seven scores in over 100 appearances for his former club after signing for them for £9m from German league side SC Freiburg in January 2012.
He had his first appearance for the team in their last home-field game versus defending title holders Collegiate Old Boys and scored all six goals in a six-two victory - including a half-hour opening period hat-trick.
The team for this season also features ex- professionals such as English and Anfield striker Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley winger George Boyd, Toffees striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic full-back Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League title victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.
Collectively, the former top-flight footballers have secured fifteen big honors and transferred for total transfer fees of approximately £123m.
Well-Known Names and International Players
Stephen Ireland began playing for the side during preseason this season through good friend and present team player Blake Norton, and the former Irish midfielder then asked additional former professionals, who all play in a weekly nine-a-side match, to join in.
Former Senegalese forward Oumar Niasse, who scored 12 goals in 65 top-flight games for Everton and still attends their matches at Goodison Park, also had his debut against Collegiate OB - who are located in the city and wear an Blue training kit as their uniform.
"My mate Stephen told me 'join and have a game, it's enjoyable'," said the striker.
"Then he informed me we were playing a side from Liverpool and the shock I had when I saw them sporting Blue kits - I say this is wrong for me!
"When you still love the game and you feel you can still do it, wherever you can play, what are you going to do?
"Those spectators who turn up and see are pleased and to give someone's moment if they see us competing there and to pose us questions - it's really about the joy of us getting somewhere we can enjoy football, with structure of course."
Such is the strength in depth at the club, Niasse had his debut at full-back.
"That's a little unusual but then, I love running 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 keep running.
"The movement is what I'm after. It's good fun."
Unreal Feeling
In addition to the forward's six scores on debut, Stephen Ireland has netted 8 in three appearances for Wythenshawe, while Boyd scored five on his debut match and Lescott, a defender by position, notched a triple in one match as a striker.
The team are leading of the Premier Division with 3 victories from 3 and a goal difference of +19.
One opponent, 38, who plays on the wing for Collegiate OB, faced ex- Wigan full-back Maynor Figueroa on the weekend - and had to tell his nine-year-old son who Emile Heskey was.
Figueroa has played at 2 global tournaments for Honduras, in addition to playing in more than 200 top-flight games.
"The news was spreading like a rumor they had these ex-Premier League players," remarked Barrow.
"I think I was a little starstruck playing against Figueroa to be honest.
"Also Heskey got on and he's got over 60 England caps.
"Our side competed well for a good twenty minutes but then we had a player sent off and it was hard.
"Our group really haven't ceased chatting about it - I was phoning my mum and sibling on the journey home.
"They were all dead sound, shaking our hands after the match - it was like facing a group of normal guys.
"Now we are eager for the return match."
We Will Still Win the League'
The manager coaches the Collegiate vets side, who won the Premier Division title the previous campaign, along with Paul Maguire.
"Our team scored one-nil up and had a