Football: Nigeria slip out of Africa’s top five according to latest FIFA rankings
Super Eagles drop to 45th in FIFA men’s world rankings
The Nigerian national football team has endured a tough year, and the latest FIFA rankings, which were released on September 19, showed that they had slipped one spot in the standings, now down to 45th overall.
The Super Eagles have only won two of their last eight matches across all competitions and have their 2026 FIFA World Cup hopes hanging by a thread, currently sat in third place in the qualifying group, six points behind the leaders with two games left to play.
Additionally, the Super Eagles B team also failed to impress at the Africa Nations Championship this year, when they bowed out of the competition in the group stage after suffering two defeats in three matches.
The slide in the FIFA standings also means that Eric Chelle’s side is no longer ranked inside the top five among CAF Nations, with the Ivory Coast overtaking them to now sit behind Morocco, Senegal, Egypt and Algeria in first to fourth place, respectively.
FIFA’s next release is scheduled in the last week of October, and between now and then, Nigeria have two crucial World Cup Qualifiers scheduled against Lesotho and Benin, both of which they have to win to try and reclaim their spot in Africa’s top five.
Major changes in world order after FIFA’s latest ranking update
FIFA’s latest ranking update delivered a major shakeup in the standings across the board, with the headline change being Spain reclaiming top spot and France moving to second, while Argentina fell two spots from pole position to third.
Brazil and Germany fell one and three places to sixth and 13th, respectively. Italy are now the gatekeeper to the top 10 teams in the world, while Morocco are now ranked 11th across the globe, seven places above Africa’s next representative, Senegal.
The biggest climber in the standings was Slovakia, which picked up a staggering 10 places, now up to 42nd overall. On the opposite end of the spectrum, Zimbabwe suffered the biggest drop of nine places, down to 125th.
FIFA Rankings: CAF Top 10
| CAF rank | FIFA Rank | Team | Current Points | Prev. Points | Prev. Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 11 | Morocco (MAR) | 1706.27 | 1,698.72 | 12 |
| 2 | 18 | Senegal (SEN) | 1645.23 | 1,635.10 | 18 |
| 3 | 35 | Egypt (EGY) | 1519.18 | 1,518.79 | 34 |
| 4 | 38 | Algeria (ALG) | 1500.74 | 1,503.80 | 36 |
| 5 | 44 | Cote d'Ivoire (CIV) | 1483.9 | 1,483.45 | 45 |
| 6 | 45 | Nigeria (NGA) | 1,483.86 | 1,484.26 | 44 |
| 7 | 46 | Tunisia (TUN) | 1483.02 | 1,471.10 | 49 |
| 8 | 52 | Cameroon (CMR) | 1,455.42 | 1,466.97 | 51 |
| 9 | 55 | South Africa (RSA) | 1,448.67 | 1,443.31 | 56 |
| 10 | 56 | Mali (MLI) | 1,445.83 | 1,454.72 | 54 |
