Super Eagles drop to lowest ranking in 46 months
Nigeria now 40th in the world, sixth in Africa
As exclusively and authoritatively reported by Sportsnow.com.ng early in the week, Nigeria has dropped five places to 40th in the world following the offivial release of the April world ranking by FIFA on Thursday.
The country also dropped by one place to sixth in Africa after the Super Eagles lost one and won another in the 2023 African Nations Cup qualifying double header against Guinea Bissau last month.
The Super Eagles began the freefall last October when they dropped three places to 35th following their failure to qualify for the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar.
This would be the lowest the country has ranked since June 2019 when the team dropped to 45th best in the world.
Nigeria’s best ranking was achieved in April 1994 when the Super Eagles soared to become the fifth best in the world while the lowest ever was achieved in January 1999 when the team was ranked 82nd best in the world.
As reported by Sportsnow.com.ng, Brazil lost its number one ranking to World Cup champions, Argentina recent friendly wins by the Argies against Panama (2-0) and Curaçao (7-0) helped the world champions dethrone Brazil (3rd, minus 2), who paid a high price for defeat in their friendly against Morocco (2-1).
Not only did A Seleçao surrender top spot, but they also saw France move ahead of them. Les Bleus’ ascent to second is down to back-to-back wins in UEFA EURO 2024 qualifying against the Netherlands (4-0) and Republic of Ireland (1-0).
However, the most improved side in this edition are Central African Republic (122nd, plus 10). By twice beating Madagascar, at the time ranked 30 places above them, Les Fauves du Bas-Oubangui rose 10 places in the global standings, outperforming other notable movers such as Namibia (106th, plus 7), Malaysia (138th, plus 7) and The Gambia (120th, plus 6).
