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How can you boost a excellent veteran team that have secured back-to-back championships, including a league-cup double with thirty victories from thirty-two games?

Recruit a raft of ex- pro players who have performed at the highest tier of club and international soccer as you aim for further honors.

A Manchester team fields an amateur vets squad with 9 former Premier League footballers in their active roster.

222 Premier League Scores, Three Hundred Twenty-Five International Appearances

The team Veterans Over-35s are located in southern the city and compete in the Cheshire-based Veterans League Top Division.

The squad list this campaign features nine ex- top-flight footballers, with a collective 1,801 top-flight matches.

The star-studded roster also includes 222 top division scores and 325 global caps.

The squad include one forward, who notched thirty-seven goals in 117 appearances for his former club after joining them for nine million pounds from Bundesliga club Freiburg in January 2012.

Cisse had his first appearance for the team in their last home game versus defending title holders their rivals and netted all six goals in a 6-2 victory - including a 32-minute first-half hat-trick.

Wythenshawe's team for this campaign also includes ex- professionals such as England and Liverpool forward Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley FC midfielder George Boyd, Everton striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic full-back Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight title winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

In total, the former Premier League footballers have claimed 15 major trophies and moved for total transfer fees of about £123m.

Famous Figures and International Stars

Ireland started turning out for the side in preseason this season through good mate and present Wythenshawe player Blake Norton, and the former Irish midfielder then asked other ex-pros, who all compete in a weekly nine-a-side match, to join in.

Former Senegalese forward Niasse, who netted 12 scores in 65 top-flight matches for the Toffees and even now goes to their matches at Goodison Park, also had his first appearance versus Collegiate OB - who are based in the city and use an Blue training kit as their uniform.

"A mate Stephen Ireland said 'come and have a game, it's enjoyable'," said Niasse.

"After that he told me we were facing a team from the city and the shock I had when I noticed them sporting Blue shirts - I say this is wrong for me!

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

"Those fans who come and watch are pleased and to make a moment if they see us competing there and to pose us queries - it's really about the pleasure of us getting somewhere we can enjoy football, with organisation of course."

Such is the strength in depth at the club, he had his first game at full-back.

"It's a bit different but then, I love running and just go forward - I'm not defending that much," he added.

"I tell my centre-back 'I'm not hanging back' and that I'm just going to keep attacking.

"The movement is what I'm seeking. It's good fun."

Unreal Scenario

In addition to the forward's 6 scores on his first game, Ireland has scored eight in 3 games for the side, while Boyd hit five on his first appearance and Lescott, a defender by trade, scored a triple in one game as a striker.

The team are leading of the Top Division with three victories from 3 and a goal difference of +19.

One opponent, 38, who plays on the wing for the opposition, faced former Wigan defender Maynor Figueroa on the weekend - and had to tell his young son who Heskey was.

Figueroa has appeared at two World Cups for his country, in addition to featuring in more than two hundred top-flight matches.

"The news was spreading like wildfire they had all these former top-flight players," said the player.

"I felt I was a little awestruck facing Figueroa to be honest.

"Even Emile [Heskey] came on and he's has 60-odd English caps.

"We held our own for a good 20 minutes but then we had a man sent off and it was hard.

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

"They were all friendly, shaking our hands after the match - it was like facing a bunch of normal guys.

"Now we are eager for the second match."

'We'll Still Win the League'

Andy Kirby manages the opposition veterans team, who won the Top Division championship the previous campaign, along with Paul Maguire.

"Our team scored one-nil up and had a