Age is not the main issue. Talent, or the lack of it, is. A 38 year old Del Piero can walk into our national team anytime.
In the 70s, we rivaled the power houses in Asia, whipped the hell out of teams like Myanmar, Japan (who is a non-footballing nation then).
In the 80-90s, Japan overtook everyone in Asia in leaps and bounds, and we began to lose out to the Myanmars, Vietnams.
Even up to 2000, we are the top teams in SEA.
Now, it is the Pinoys who have improved and overtook us.
In the midst of this all, we have pumped in millions to start schools of excellence, created our own league (to mimic the J league), import talents, hired foreign coaches etc. I have not seen any country or FA who has done all that and still moved backwards like we did. Fuck football, can't we just admit we are top in football only in terms of collecting money from television broadcast rights? It is NOT going to work. Ever.