Nigeria’s Super Eagles drops five places to place 40th in latest FIFA ranking

The Super Eagles of Nigeria have dropped five places to become 40th in the world and 6th in Africa in the latest FIFA ranking released on Thursday.

The Nigerian side, which has has uninspiring Nations Cup qualifiers, dropped over 13 points from 1494.32 which they had when the last ranking was released to 1480.8 and are now behind a team like Russia that have not participated in competitive football for a while.

The biggest climber of all were Central African Republic, which enjoyed a double-digit rise (10 ranks) on the back of successive wins that have left it well placed to qualify for a first-ever AFCON appearance.

Globally, Argentina climbed to the top of the ranking for the first time in over six years.

La Albiceleste (1840.93 points) leapfrogged Brazil (1834.21) after enjoying friendly wins over Panama and Curacao. France (1838.45) also moved past the Brazilians after beating the Netherlands and Republic of Ireland in its opening round of the UEFA EURO qualifiers.

Belgium with 1792.53 points and England with 1792.43 points complete the top five ranks.