Super Eagles’ World Cup qualifiers wins over Zambia and Algeria have catapulted Nigeria 10 places up in the November rankings released yesterday by FIFA, the world’s soccer governing body and the players are excited about it.
Nigeria, one of the best movers for the month are now perched at the 50th position in the world rankings. Argentina retained their top spot, while Brazil moved into the second place. Germany, Chile, Belgium, Colombia, France, Portugal, Uruguay and Spain make up the world top 10.
In the African rankings, Nigeria moved up four places to be a joint 7th with Burkina Faso in the top 10 chart, where Senegal displaced Cote d’ Ivoire at the top spot. Tunisia, Egypt, Algeria, Congo DR, Burkina Faso/Nigeria, Ghana, Morocco and South Africa make up up the top 10.
The December ranking will be the final ranking for 2016 and will be published on December 22.
The “Team of the Year Award” will be given to the team in first place by year’s end and “Mover of the Year” is awarded to the team that has won the most points over the course of the year.
The Eagles under coach Gernot Rohr have won three consecutive games, the sweetest being against Algeria who were previously the number one ranked team in Africa but have now dropped to the fourth place.
Super Eagles captain, John Mikel Obi took to tweeter to express his delight at the development, while goalkeeper Daniel Akpeyi said the team must continue in their winning streak.
“We must now continue winning in other matches to be able to sustain and further improve in subsequent rankings,”Akpeyi said.
