Eagles climb on FIFA Rankings
Despite the disappointment of crashing out of the Africa Cup of Nations at the Round of 16, the Super Eagles have made appreciable leap in the FIFA Rankings released on Thursday morning as the team is now ranked third in Africa and 32 in the World.
The Super Eagles before the current rankings was fifth on the continent behind African Champions, Senegal, Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia. Though Nigeria was eliminated by Tunisia, the country has now leapfrogged them to the third position.
After winning their first AFCON title last weekend, Senegal continued their ascent into the upper echelons of world football. The Teranga Lions have climbed to 18th, their highest ever position. Unsurprisingly, the AFCON generated most the movements seen in the year’s first edition of the rankings.
Aside from Senegal, the highest ranked African nation in the standings, Cameroon (38, + 12), who finished third at the African Cup, and runners-up Egypt (34, + 11) have made the most significant moves within the Top 50.
However, the biggest jump of all this month was by The Gambia (125, + 25), the Scorpions ascending 25 places courtesy of their run to the quarterfinals at the African Cup. Equatorial Guinea, who also reached the last eight at the tournament, climb 15 places and are now in the Top 100. Other notable rises were those of Malawi (119, + 10) and Gabon (82, + 7). For their part, Mali (48, + 5) made more modest gains but nonetheless broke in to the Top 50.
That said, there was action beyond the borders of the Mother Continent, most notably in the shape of qualifying for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™, with the results even affecting the Top 5 places. Argentina (4th, + 1) used the international window to take fourth place from England (5th, – 1), following impressive results in the South American qualifiers. Belgium (1, unchanged) remains in pole position ahead of Brazil (2, unchanged) and France (3, unchanged).
