Nigeria rose up three spots to 63rd place in the FIFA ranking released yesterday, despite getting knocked out in the group stage of the ongoing 2016 African Nations Championship (CHAN) holding in Rwanda.
Sunday Oliseh’s men were ranked 66 in the January edition of the monthly rankings.
Yesterday’s result means the win against Niger and draw with Tunisia at the soccer championship for home-based national team players have improved the country’s rating in the latest FIFA rankings.
Not only that, the win over Cote d’Ivoire and draw with Angola in warm-up matches for the tournament in Rwanda have also added more points to the Super Eagles.
However, they are now 12th in Africa with Cote d’Ivoire still the best ranked African team as they are 28th in the world.
Nigeria’s AFCON 2017 rivals Egypt are now 55th in the world and eighth in Africa.
The FIFA rankings are expected to be one of the things to consider when the draw for the final round of the qualifying tournament for the 2018 World Cup is done in June.
Teams will be drawn in five groups to play on home and away basis with the overall group winners qualifying for the World Cup in Russia.
The other top ranked teams in Africa are Cape Verde, Algeria, Ghana, Senegal, Tunisia, Congo, Egypt, DR Congo, Guinea and Cameroon.
Belgium remain atop the pile beating Argentina to the second position with reigning world champions Germany dropping to fourth place.
Former world champions Spain are unmoved at number three while Euro 2016 hosts France climbed up one place to the 24th spot.
The three most impressive teams for February’s ranking all come from Asia: Palestine (110, plus 21), Saudi Arabia (55, plus 20) and Korea DPR (95, plus 18) enjoyed the biggest advances since the last world ranking.
The next FIFA world ranking will be published on March 3, 2016.
Daily Trust
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