Nigeria’s Super Eagles moved up from 39th to 36th position in the latest men’s world ranking released yesterday by the world soccer governing body, FIFA on its website.
Coach Augustine Eguavoen-led squad also jumped up two places to fourth position in Africa.
The Eagles are behind Morocco, who are Africa’s highest ranked team in 13th place in the world, Senegal (20th) and Egypt (30th).
Benin Republic, who will host the Eagles on matchday 5 in Group D of the AFCON 2025 qualifiers, dropped to 95 position in the ranking.
Matchday 6 opponent in the AFCON qualifiers, Rwanda, moved up in the latest ranking to 126, while Libya dropped to 122.
The Eagles and Libya still await CAF’s verdict on their matchday 4 fixture which was called off.
The game which was billed for Benghazi was cancelled by CAF after Libyan authorities held Super Eagles players at an airport for more than 10 hours.
Meanwhile, World Cup champions, Argentina are still the best ranking team in the world, but their lead over France (2nd) and Spain (3rd) has been narrowed down.
England (4th), Brazil (5th) and Belgium (6th) have all held onto their positions. Portugal (7th, up 1) and Italy (9th, up 1) are the only climbers within the top 10, which is completed by the Netherlands (8th, down 1) and Colombia (10th, down 1), with Germany (11th, up 2) now knocking on the door.
The next FIFA world ranking will be published on November 28, 2024.
