Fifa ranking : super eagles rise to 5th position in Africa and 40th in the world

Nigeria’s Super Eagles have moved up one place from 41st to 40th position in the latest Coca-Cola/FIFA world rankings released on Thursday on Fifa website.

The Eagles, who played only one international friendly last month against the Teranga Lions of Senegal, were seventh in Africa in the previous rankings, but have now risen to fifth in the continent.

Egypt maintained first position on 19th in the world, followed by Senegal on 30th. Nigeria’s 2018 World Cup group opponents Cameroon Cameroon are third but dropped from 33rd to 34th in the world, while Burkina Faso are fourth on 35th position.

Bafana Bafana of South Africa who will face the Eagles in a Group B qualifier for the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations in Uyo in June, dropped two places to the 64th spot.

Algeria went down from 50th to 54th, and Zambia went down seven places to 97th position.

There were a number of movements throughout the rankings, with Northern Ireland, Greece and the United States all making improvements; while Netherlands have dropped to their lowest ever position in the monthly rankings, following a dismal run under recently-sacked head coach Danny Blind.

Meanwhile, Brazil have returned to number one, followed by Argentina. World champions Germany sit on third. Copa America holders Chile are in fourth spot, Colombia occupy the fifth position, France are in sixth, Belgium seventh, European champions Portugal are eighth, Switzerland ninth and Spain 10th.