Femi Solaja with agency report
With no activity in the last one-month, Nigeria’s Super Eagles retained their 39th position in the July FIFA Men’s world ranking released on Thursday.
After a period of free fall, Eagles moved up to 39th last month following the
3-2 away win against Sierra Leone in Liberia. It was a Match-day five win in the on-going AFCON 2023 qualifiers.
Eagles similarly retained their sixth spot in the CAF standings behind Morocco (1st), Senegal (2nd), Tunisia (3rd), Algeria (4th) and Egypt (5th).
Nigeria’s highest ranking since the introduction of the FIFA ranking was in 1994 when Eagles rose to 5th. That position is also the highest ever by any team from Africa.
Meanwhile, World Cup champions, Argentina remain number one in the global ranking, nearly four months on from regaining top spot, thanks to friendly wins over Australia and Indonesia.
France and Brazil maintained second and third spots, respectively, in the July ranking while England and Belgium are fourth and fifth.
FIFA arrived at the current ratings with a total of 62 matches played since the last edition World Ranking in June, with 25 of those games taking place in the final competition of the CONCACAF Gold Cup.
The other 37 matches were played in the SAFF Cup (AFC) and COSAFA Cup (CAF), two tournaments that are considered friendly competitions for the purposes of the FIFA ranking.
The next FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking will be published on 21 September 2023.
