No Movement for Super Eagles at 26th,  France Reclaim Top Spot

Duro Ikhazuagbe

There was no movement for Nigeria’s Super Eagles in the latest FIFA Ranking released yesterday. The Nigerian senior men’s football team that finished third in the 2025 AFCON in Morocco last January retained their 26th standing from the March release. 

Sadly, the three-time African champions will be missing from the 48-team line up when the 2026 World Cup  kicks off in North America in June.

According to FIFA on Wednesday, the Super Eagles who narrowly defeated Iran 2-1 on Friday and drew 2-2 with Jordan on Tuesday in Turkey, remained unchanged in both global and African standings at 26th and 3rd positions respectively. Eagles opponents in the International friendlies Iran and Jordan dropped to 21st and 63rd in the latest April rankings.

Eagles  are behind Africa’s top team Morocco who are also 8th in global ranking while the second best team in Africa, Senegal, dropped two spots to 14th.

Behind Nigeria in the African standing is Algeria while Egypt’s Pharaohs are 5th. Côte d’Ivoire,  Tunisia, Cameroon, Congo DR, and  Mali completed the Top 10 of the African rankings.

On the global stage, France overtook European champions Spain to claim the top spot in the April rankings.

Two wins in France’s most recent friendlies have seen Les Bleussurge back to the summit for the first time since September 2018. 

They have leapfrogged Spain (2nd, down 1) and World champions Argentina (3rd, down 1) in the process, with virtually nothing to choose between the three. The reigning European champions’ push to preserve the pole position they had occupied since September 2025 was hampered by a stalemate with Egypt (29th, up 2) on Tuesday, 31 March.

The next edition of the FIFA men’s world ranking will be released on 10 June , 2026.

Africa’s Top 10

Morocco

Senegal 

Nigeria

Algeria

Egypt 

Côte d’Ivoire 

Tunisia

Cameroon

Congo DR

Mali

Global Top 10

France

Spain

Argentina

England

Portugal 

Brazil

Netherlands

Morocco 

Belgium

Germany