FIFA Ranking: Nigeria displaces Guinea as 62nd best team in the world, 11th in Africa

The former African champions climbed a solitary spot up to move behind Cameroon, the last team on the continent’s top ten list, according to the latest ranking released on Thursday by the world football governing body.

Nigeria’s men national team are currently the 62nd best team in the world and 11th in Africa, after only managing 1 win and 1 draw of the three games played in February.

The Super Eagles, who have a new head coach in Samson Siasia, move just one place up, climbing above Guinea having garnered a total of 547 points, a mere 7 points more than last month.

The Super Eagles, whose best ranking in 2015 was 41st, achieved after winning 5 and losing just 2 games of 11 played, have some more climbing to do to get back among the best teams in the world.  

Interestingly, Africa has a new numero uno as Cape Verde Islands replaces Cote d’Ivoire as Africa’s number one side.

It’s happy times for that African nation on a volcanic archipelago off the northwest coast of the continent that was once ranked 182nd in the world but now occupy the 31st position in the world.

African champions, Cote d’Ivoire are a further 5 spots behind in 36th.

Overall, only six African nations made it into the world top 50 but more significantly, Nigeria is not one of them.

Looking at the complete ranking table, no team moved out of or into the top ten in the world with the likes of Belgium (1st), Argentina (2nd), Spain (3rd) Germany (4th) and Chile (5th) retaining their spots. 

Belgium, Argentina, Mexico, Iran and New Zealand held their positions at the top of their respective confederations, with the only change in leadership at the confederation level this month taking place in CAF.

Armenia and Venezuela were the biggest movers of the new ranking. Armenia climbed seven places to 116 in the world while South America’s Venezuela rose 6 places and gained 57 points to climb to 75th position.