Nigeria have moved to the 33rd position in the latest FIFA World rankings released on Thursday. The latest leap comes after the team finished third at the just concluded Africa Cup of Nations in Egypt.
In the ranking table released by the world football governing body on Thursday, Nigeria garnered 1,481 points as against 1,433 it had in June to place 45th.
The movement has now placed Nigeria as the third-best team in Africa behind Senegal and Tunisia, who are 20th and 29th in the world, respectively.
African champions Algeria (40th, up 28) are the biggest mover in the July edition by ranks and points (up 117), while fellow finalist Senegal (20th, up 2) did not make a huge leap but reached their best-ever ranking position. Semi-finalists Nigeria (33rd, up 12), are joined by surprise quarter-finalists Madagascar (96th, up 12) and Benin (82nd, up 6) in seeing their continental performances rewarded with a ranking rise.
New South American champions Brazil (2nd, up 1) leapfrogged France (3rd, down 1) in second place and trail leaders Belgium by a narrow margin of 20 points. Other sides in Copa America action improved their Ranking positions substantially, namely quarter-finalists Uruguay (5th, up 3), Colombia (8th, up 5), and Venezuela (26th, up 7) – who reach their best-ever Ranking position after their run to the last eight. Bronze-medallists Argentina (10th, up 1) complete a quartet of South American teams in the top ten.
The next FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking will be published on 19 September 2019.
