NIGERIA moved up four steps in the latest FIFA/Coca Cola world ranking released on Thursday. However, the former African champions are still out of the top 10 African countries in the monthly reckoning of the world football ruling body.
In the ranking for the month of October 2016, Nigeria, with 562 points as against September’s 534, are placed 60th in the world. But they are placed 11th among the African countries.
FIFA, by the results of the 129 matches it reckoned with in the last four weeks, came up with the latest ranking and one of them is the Nigeria-Zambia 2018 World Cup qualifying match which the west Africans won 2-1 away from home to earn them this significant movement up the ladder. The result has also seen the Zambians drop by two steps to the 94th position in the current ranking.
Nigeria next face Algeria in the qualifiers next month and the north Africans, forced to a 1-1 draw at home by Cameroon, remain Africa’s third best, maintaining the 35th position they held last month. The Indomitable Lions also maintain their old 59th position and are Africa’s 10th best on the log.
Current continental champions Ivory Coast remain the best, moving three steps up from their last ranking to the 31st position in the world. With seven steps up, Senegal, 32nd in the world, are second in Africa. Others in Africa’s top ten are Tunisia (38; 4), Ghana (45; 5), Egypt (46; 6), Congo DR (49; 7), Congo (55; 8) and Mali (58; 9).
While Argentina remain number one in the ranking, each of Germany and Brazil moved a step up to occupy the second and third position respectively. On other hand, Belgium dropped by two steps to fall out of the top three for the first time since March 2015. They are fourth in the current ranking.
Colombia, with a step down, are fifth, while Chile are unmoved in the sixth position. France and Portugal swapped positions with the defeated Euro 2016 finalists moving to the seventh position while the current European champions move to the eighth. While Spain are back among the top 10 as the holders of that position, Wales slipped a step down to the 11th.
The next FIFA/Coca Cola ranking will be released on November 24.
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