Nigeria’s Super Eagles dropped again in the FIFA World ranking as they moved one step down from 44th to 45th.
The latest ranking was released by FIFA on their official website today (Thursday).
When the ranking was released in July, the Super Eagles also dropped from 43rd to 44th spot.
In Africa, the Super Eagles are now sixth behind Morocco (1st), Senegal (2nd), Egypt (3rd), Algeria (4th) and Côte d’Ivoire (5th).
Lesotho who will host the Eagles on matchday 9 of the 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifiers in October dropped to 153.
Another opponent of the Super Eagles in next month’s qualifiers Benin Republic moved up to 93rd place.
Bafana Bafana of South Africa, who hekd the three-time AFCON champions to a 1-1 draw this month and brighten their chances of qualifying for the World Cup, climb to 55th place.
Meanwhile, the highest-profile change comes right at the top, with UEFA EURO 2024 winners Spain rising one place to 1st, a mark they have not occupied in the men’s game since back in June 2014.
In the process, they have dethroned long-standing leaders Argentina (3rd, down 2), who had occupied the position since April 2023.
Joining Spain in surpassing the current world champions are the team Argentina beat in the FIFA World Cup 2022 final, France (2nd, up 1).
Slightly further down, Portugal, Croatia and Italy have all edged up one spot, into 5th, 9th and 10th position, respectively, making the most of the setbacks suffered by Brazil (6th, down 1) and Germany (12th, down 3).
For Germany, the damage was done by their away defeat to Slovakia in their opening FIFA World Cup 26 qualifier, and they find themselves languishing outside the top 10 for the first time since October 2024.
Morocco (11th, up 1) now lead the chasing pack outside the top 10, having triumphed in eight of their nine matches since the last edition of the ranking in July.
(Complete Sports)
