.3rd in Africa behind Senegal, Morocco
.Egypt & Tunisia make top 5
.Ghana slide to 61st in the world
By Tunde Liadi and Agency reports
Super Eagles have climbed four places up the ladder in the FIFA rankings for February to now occupy the 32nd spot in the world and third position in Africa despite exiting the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations in the second round.
In a list released by FIFA yesterday, the three times African Champions garnered 31 points more to move into the top three position in Africa behind Senegal who retain the first spot in Africa and also broke into the top 20 for the first time in 18th position. Morocco that got the quarter final in Cameroon 2021 AFCON are second in Africa and 24th in the world.
The Eagles are closely followed by the Pharaohs of Egypt who have kept a hot chase on the team for some months now. Egypt are fourth in Africa and just two places behind Nigeria in the world at 34th spot despite getting to the final of the AFCON before losing on penalties to Senegal.
The Super Eagles won all their games at the AFCON group stages but fell to Tunisia in the round of 16 1-0 but that early elimination could not stop their rise in the rankings
Tunisia slipped from 30th spot in the world to 36th to occupy the fifth spot but Nigeria’s opponents in the 2022 World Cup playoffs, the Black Stars of Ghana slid nine places down from the 52nd spot in the world in December to 61st in the recent ranking. They are 10th in Africa.
Aside from Senegal, the highest ranked African nation in the standings, Cameroon (38, + 12), who finished third at the African Cup, and runners-up Egypt (34, + 11) have made the most significant moves within the TOP 50.
However, the biggest jump of all this month was by Gambia (125, + 25), the Scorpions ascending 25 places courtesy of their run to the quarter-final at the African Cup. Equatorial Guinea, who also reached the last eight at the tournament, climb 15 places and are now in the Top 100. Other notable rises were those of Malawi (119, + 10) and Gabon (82, + 7). For their part, Mali (48, + 5) made more modest gains but nonetheless broke in to the Top 50.
With eight of its teams now in the Top 50 (up 1 this edition), CAF has consolidated its third place in terms of confederation ranking, to the detriment of the AFC (4 teams in the Top 50, a fall of 1). The other confederations have the same number of representatives as in the December 2021 Ranking: 26 for UEFA, 8 for CONMEBOL, 4 for CONCACAF and none for OFC.
