[FIFA RANKINGS] Nigeria Remain Glued To 53rd Position

The Super Eagles head into this Saturday’s Africa Cup of Nations qualifier away to Tanzania as the 53rd ranked soccer team on earth, following a static position granted Nigeria in the latest global rankings by world soccer governing body, FIFA.

While Nigeria are unmoved as 53rd in the world, the Eagles’ opponents in Dar-Es-Salaam, in their second match of the 2017 AFCON qualifiers, Tanzania also stay at 140th in the world.

Rwanda are the biggest movers from Africa in the latest FIFA World Rankings, with the Amavubi jumping a massive 13 spots to 78th in the latest world rankings and into the top 20 on the African continent.

Algeria remain top dogs on African soil, 19th in the world. African champions Ivory Coast are second and 2015 Africa Cup of Nations runners-up Ghana come in at third.

South Africa remain 72nd in the world, while seven-time AFCON champions Egypt move up three players into the top 50 in the world.

Cape Verde Islands and Democratic Republic of Congo drop six places apiece on the latest rankings, while the Seychelles are the biggest 'losers' in the world, falling seven places to 192.

Cosafa Cup champions Namibia remain 111th in the world.

Djibouti remain bottom, 205th in the world, having lost 8-1 to Tunisia in their opening 2017 AFCON group stage game.

Argentina are still rated the number one footballing nation in the world, with Belgium, Germany, Colombia and Brazil occupying the second, third, fourth and fifth positions respectively.

Portugal in sixth, Romania (seventh) and Wales (ninth) are the other countries in the top ten of world football as recorded by the football governing body.

There was however, no place for former World and European champions, Spain, in the top ten, as they maintained eleventh position.

Top 20 on the African continent, world ranking in brackets:

1. Algeria (19)

2. Ivory Coast (21)

3. Ghana (27)

4. Tunisia (33)

5. Senegal (38)

6. Congo (42)

7. Cameroon (43)

8. Egypt (49)

9. Nigeria (53)

10. Cape Verde (56)

11. Mali (60)

12. Equatorial Guinea (62)

13. Gabon (63)

14. Guinea (64)

15. Democratic Republic of Congo (65)

16. Uganda (71)

17 South Africa (72)

18. Burkina Faso (73)

19. Zambia (74)

20. Rwanda (78)