Despite an impressive start to the African Cup of Nations – AFCON 2025 qualifiers against Benin Republic and Rwanda, Nigeria’s Super Eagles dropped one place to the 6th in Africa but maintained 39th spot globally in the latest World rankings released by the soccer governing body (FIFA) on Thursday.
Super Eagles, under the interim coach Austin Eguavoen, thrashed Benin Republic 3-0 in Uyo the Akwa Ibom State capital, and played a scoreless draw against the Amavubi of Rwanda in Kigali.
The two matches which had a significant knock-on effect on the FIFA/Coca-Cola Men’s World Ranking, saw slight drop in Super Eagles’ points from 1498.93 in previous month to 1498.02 in September and fallout of the top five national football teams in Africa, with Tunisia overtaking them.
The latest ranking also saw an increasing competition within African football, with Morocco continuing to dominate the rankings.
The Atlas Lions, who had a stellar 2022 World Cup campaign, are the top-ranked team in Africa, followed by Senegal, Egypt, Ivory Coast, and Tunisia.
Meanwhile, there are no changes in the top 10 of the FIFA World ranking as world champions Argentina remain at number one, France are second, Spain are third, England fourth and Brazil fifth.
In sixth position is Belgium, the Netherlands are seventh, Portugal occupy eight, Colombia in ninth and Italy 10th.
While San Marino (210th) remained rooted to the bottom of the pile, their first victory in more than 20 years was nevertheless one of the stories of the month.
La Serenissima’s previous triumph had been a 1-0 success against Liechtenstein in April 2004 and, after a 140-game winless run, they repeated the feat 5th September against the same opposition and by the same scoreline.
