Nigeria up nine spots in FIFA rankings
Nigeria’s Super Eagles moved up nine spots from their 50th position in January to 41st in the latest FIFA world ranking released on Thursday, reports extrasportsnigeria.com.
By the latest posting on the world football governing website, Eagles are now in the seventh position in Africa. Cameroon’s Indomitable Lions who just won the African cup are among the highest movers as they jumped 29 places to 33rd in the world. Algeria and Zambia who are the same Group B with Nigeria and Cameroon in Russia 2018 race didn’t fare well as Algeria dropped 11 places to 50th, while Zambia slipped three places to 91st.
Egypt who lost to Cameroon in the final match of the African Cup of Nations are Africa’s highest ranked team as they now occupy the 23rd position in the world table. They moved up from 35th position of last month’s table.
Also Eagles 2019 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying group opponents, South Africa, Seychelles and Libya all slipped. The South Africans dropped two places to 62nd, Libya fell two spots to 92nd and Seychelles one place to 186th.
The changes were mainly for the African teams as the top five ranked teams in the world all maintained their positions. Leo Messi’s Argentina remain number one; Brazil are second, Germany still ranked third while Chile and Belgium are fourth and fifth respectively.