Meet this Weekend League Team With Nearly Two Thousand English Top Division Matches
How can you improve a stellar experienced side who have won consecutive titles, including a double triumph with thirty victories from thirty-two matches?
Bring in a raft of ex- professionals who have competed at the highest tier of club and global soccer as you pursue further honors.
A Manchester team fields an non-professional vets squad with 9 former Premier League footballers in their active squad.
Two Hundred Twenty-Two Premier League Scores, 325 Global Appearances
The team Veterans Over-35s are based in south Manchester and compete in the Cheshire Veterans Division Premier Division.
Their roster this season boasts 9 former Premier League footballers, with a total 1,801 elite games.
This high-profile roster also boasts 222 Premier League goals and 325 global appearances.
They 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 2012.
He made his first appearance for the team in their last home-field game against reigning title holders their rivals and netted all six scores in a 6-2 win - including a 32-minute first-half hat-trick.
The roster for this campaign also includes former pros such as English and Anfield forward Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley FC midfielder George Boyd, Everton forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic defender Maynor Figueroa, City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League championship victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.
In total, the ex- top-flight players have secured fifteen big honors and transferred for total transfer fees of approximately £123m.
Well-Known Names and Global Players
Stephen Ireland began turning out for the side during preseason this summer through close mate and current team teammate Blake Norton, and the ex- Irish player then asked additional former professionals, who all play in a midweek small-sided game, to join in.
Ex- Senegalese forward Oumar Niasse, who scored twelve goals in sixty-five top-flight games for Everton and even now attends their matches at Goodison Park, also made his first appearance versus the opposition - who are located in the city and wear an Blue warm-up gear as their uniform.
"A friend Stephen said 'join and have a game, it's enjoyable'," commented Niasse.
"After that he informed me we were playing a team from the city and the surprise I had when I noticed them sporting Blue shirts - I say this is wrong for me!
"If you still love the game and you feel you can still play, anywhere you can play, what are you going to choose?
"Those fans who turn up and see are pleased and to give someone's day if they see us playing there and to ask us questions - it's really about the pleasure of us getting a place we can play, with structure of course."
Such is the squad depth at the club, Niasse had his first game at defender.
"It's a bit different but then, I love sprinting and just go inside - I'm not defending that much," he added.
"I warn my centre-back 'I'm not hanging back' and that I'm just going to keep running.
"The running is what I'm after. It's enjoyable."
Unreal Feeling
In addition to Cisse's 6 goals on his first game, Ireland has scored 8 in 3 appearances for the side, while Boyd hit 5 on his debut match and Lescott, a centre-half by position, notched a triple in one game as a striker.
The team are leading of the Top Division with 3 wins from three and a goal difference of +19.
One opponent, 38, who features on the flank for Collegiate OB, came up against former Wigan full-back Maynor Figueroa on Sunday - and had to tell his young boy who Emile Heskey was.
He has played at 2 World Cups for his country, in addition to playing in more than two hundred top-flight games.
"It was going round like wildfire they had these ex-Premier League players," remarked the player.
"I felt I was a bit awestruck playing against Figueroa to be honest.
"Also Emile [Heskey] got on and he's got 60-odd England appearances.
"Our side held our own for a good twenty mins but then we had a player dismissed and it was hard.
"Our group really haven't ceased talking about it - I was phoning my mother and brother on the way home.
"They were all dead sound, shaking our hands after the game - it was like facing a group of regular guys.
"Now we can't wait for the second fixture."
'We'll Still Win the League'
Andy Kirby manages the opposition veterans side, who won the Top Division championship the previous campaign, together with Paul Maguire.
"Our team went one-nil up and had a