Description of issue
I holidayed from June 2022 to June 2025 and tracked attribute changes for a selection of high-level players who are at or slightly past their prime ages. The players I looked at were Salah and van Dijk, Kane, De Bruyne, Lewandowski, Jorginho, Thomas Muller, Ciro Immobile and Messi. This is on the latest GamePass version of FM23.
At the end of the 2025 season, an age 33 Salah is still a star player for Liverpool, with 26 goals in 59 appearances. From age 29 at game start, his total attributes have increased by 6; his only decreases have been -1 Dribbling and -1 Pace (his Agility has also increased by 1).
An age 33 van Dijk is still a star player for Liverpool, making 57 appearances and averaging a three-year high in tackles/90. His total attributes have dropped by 4 (-1 strength, -1 balance, -3 dribbling, +1 passing).
An age 31 Harry Kane is still a star player for Tottenham, with 28 goals in 54 appearances. From age 28 at game start, his total attributes have decreased by 7; none have changed by more than 1. His jumping reach, stamina and strength have decreased by 1, but his natural fitness and agility have increased by 1. That seems optimistic for a player with a history of ankle problems.
An age 33 Kevin de Bruyne is still a star player for Manchester City, with 8 goals and 25 assists in 67 appearances. His attributes have decreased by 19, mostly concentrated in technical attributes. His physical attributes have also each dropped by 1, except Natural Fitness and Pace, which are unchanged.
An age 36 Robert Lewandowski is still a star player for Barcelona, with 37 goals in 54 appearances. His total attributes have decreased by 12; all of his physicals have dropped by 1 except Natural Fitness (unchanged at 20) and Balance, which has dropped by 2.
An age 33 Jorginho is still a star player for Chelsea, with a match rating of 7.09 in 53 appearances. His attributes have decreased by a total of 1, with -1 Stamina and -1 Dribbling partially offset by +1 Corners.
An age 35 Thomas Muller now plays for Manchester City, where he is a star player, making 57 appearances with 13 goals and 16 assists. His attributes have decreased by 12, including all of his physicals dropping by 1 (acceleration, balance, jumping reach) or 2 (agility, pace, stamina, strength; natural fitness is unchanged at 20).
A 35 year old Ciro Immobile is still a star player for Lazio, scoring 20 goals in 50 appearances. His attributes have actually increased by 1, with -1 drops in acceleration, agility, pace, stamina and strength. Some of the improvement is in his awful crossing stat (why Immobile starts with 3 Crossing I don't understand), but he's also improved in passing, flair and vision.
A 37 year old Messi is still a star player for PSG, with 14 goals and 12 assists in 49 appearances. Of the players I tracked, he's the only one who saw a pronounced dropoff in attributes, with a total decrease of 31 and drops across the physical spectrum (-1 acceleration and jumping reach, -2 agility, balance and stamina, -3 strength and -4 pace).
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It's a small sample, obviously, but there are a couple things that seem to stick out.
First, there doesn't seem to be an age cliff for star players. Only Messi had a drop of more than 2 in any physical attribute. All the players who were physically monstrous at the start of the save are still physical monsters. The only attribute to drop for every player was dribbling. None of these players became more injury-prone. Messi had one non-contact, non-illness injury in three years. Salah had two. Van Dijk had one (he missed a total of eight days in three seasons!). Kane had three, one in each season. De Bruyne had five, but only one kept him out longer than a week. Lewandowski had six injures, none longer than three days. Jorginho also had five injuries, two longer than a week. Thomas Muller missed three days in three years, all from a single tight thigh. Immobile missed four days total from two injuries. This resistance to injuries and physical decline is contrary to research and to observed effects in the real world. None of these guys have retired. None have even moved into smaller roles.
Second, star players do not change clubs often. Looking through the various awards, only one of the players who finished first, second or third in the European Golden Boy, European Golden Shoe or Best Player in Europe awards from 22-23 to 24-25 changed club: Jose Macias, who moved from Cruz Azul to Stuttgart and finished second in the 24-25 Golden Shoe. The other players (Rashford, Lewandowski, Vlahovic, Lautaro Martinez, Mbappe, Kevin Volland, Kane, De Bruyne, Haaland, Bernardo Silva, Gavi, Musiala, Xavi Simons) were all at the same clubs they started with. Camavinga, Tchouameni, Rodrygo, Vinicius Jr, Courtois, Carvajal, Asensio and Eder Militao are all still with Real Madrid; Koulibaly, Chilwell, Chalobah, Gallagher, Havertz, Sterling, Lukaku, Mendy, Fofana, Mount, Kante, Ziyech, Kovacic and Loftus-Cheek are all still at Chelsea; Ramsdale, Tomiyasu, Gabriel, Tierney, Partey, ESR, Odegaard, Martinelli, Jesus, Turner, White, Saliba, Patino, Zinchenko and Saka are all still with Arsenal (as well as a bunch of young players who have no chance of ever making it, like Alex Runarsson). Squads, at least at the big clubs, are very static. There's no churn. They're also pretty big. Every club in the top half in England has at least 31 players available for the senior squad, with most having more.
Third, natural fitness hasn't decreased for any of the players I tracked, and all of them have 14+ natural fitness. That may explain some of why attribute drops are fairly small, and why they don't miss time with injuries. It's possible that players with lower natural fitness miss more games and decline more rapidly.
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