Discover the Sunday Division Team Boasting Nearly Two Thousand Top-Flight Games
What can you improve a outstanding experienced side who have claimed back-to-back championships, featuring a league-cup double with thirty victories from 32 matches?
Recruit a group of former professionals who have competed at the top tier of club football and international soccer as you aim for further honors.
One Manchester club fields an amateur veterans team with 9 former Premier League players in their current squad.
222 Premier League Goals, 325 Global Caps
The team Vets Over-35s are based in south the city and compete in the Cheshire-based Veterans Division Premier Division.
The roster this season features 9 ex- top-flight footballers, with a total over 1,800 Premier League games.
The high-profile squad also includes 222 Premier League goals and over 320 international appearances.
They feature Papiss Cisse, who netted 37 scores in 117 appearances for Newcastle United after joining them for £9m from Bundesliga side SC Freiburg in January 2012.
He had his first appearance for the team in their last home match versus reigning champions their rivals and netted all six scores in a six-two win - featuring a half-hour opening period triple.
The team for this campaign also includes ex- professionals such as England and Anfield forward Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley winger George Boyd, Toffees forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan defender Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight championship winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.
In total, the former Premier League players have claimed 15 big trophies and moved for total transfer fees of about £123m.
Famous Names and Global Players
Stephen Ireland began turning out for the team in pre-season this season through good mate and current team teammate Blake Norton, and the ex- Irish midfielder then asked additional ex-pros, who all play in a weekly small-sided match, to join in.
Ex- Senegalese forward Oumar Niasse, who scored twelve goals in sixty-five Premier League games for Everton and still attends their home games, also made his debut versus the opposition - who are based in the city and wear an Blue warm-up gear as their strip.
"A mate Stephen said 'join and play, it's a laugh'," commented Niasse.
"After that he informed me we were facing a team from Liverpool and the surprise I had when I noticed them wearing Everton kits - I say this is wrong for me!
"When you still enjoy football and you know you can still do it, anywhere you can kick a ball, what are you going to do?
"The fans who turn up and watch are happy and to give someone's moment if they see us competing there and to ask us queries - it's more like the joy of us getting a place we can enjoy football, with organisation of course."
So great is the strength in depth at the club, Niasse made his debut at full-back.
"It's a bit different but then, I enjoy sprinting and just go inside - I'm not staying back that much," he said.
"I warn my centre-back 'I'm not staying' and that I'm just going to continue running.
"The running is what I'm looking for. It's enjoyable."
'Surreal Feeling
In addition to Cisse's six goals on debut, Stephen Ireland has netted eight in 3 games for the side, while Boyd scored five on his debut match and Lescott, a centre-half by trade, scored a triple in one game up front.
The team are top of the Premier Tier with 3 victories from 3 and a GD of plus nineteen.
Paul Barrow, thirty-eight, who plays on the wing for Collegiate OB, faced ex- Wigan full-back Maynor Figueroa on the weekend - and had to explain his nine-year-old son who Heskey was.
He has appeared at two global tournaments for Honduras, in addition to playing in over two hundred top-flight matches.
"It was spreading like wildfire they had these former top-flight stars," said Barrow.
"I think I was a bit starstruck playing against Figueroa to be honest.
"Also Heskey came on and he's has 60-odd English caps.
"Our side held our own for a good 20 mins but then we had a player sent off and it was hard.
"We really haven't ceased talking about it - I was calling my mum and sibling on the journey home.
"The opponents were all really nice, shaking our hands after the match - it was like facing a group of regular fellas.
"Now we are eager for the return match."
'We'll Still Win the League'
Andy Kirby manages the opposition vets team, who secured the Top Division title the previous campaign, together with his co-manager.
"Our team scored 1-0 up and had a