Leonel Messi’s Argentina, the current world champions, have reclaimed the top position of the FIFA Men’s World Ranking as Portugal, rival Christiano Ronaldo’s national team, occupy the 9th spot behind Italy.
Argentina’s return to the summit of the football world ranking can be attributed to the many wins registered recently.
Recent friendly wins 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 Brazil surrender top spot, but they also saw France (2nd, plus 1) move ahead of them. Les Bleus’ ascent to second is due to back-to-back wins in UEFA EURO 2024 qualifying against the Netherlands (4-0) and Republic of Ireland (1-0).
Outside the leading trio, there were no other movers among the Top 10. Belgium (4th) remain just outside the podium places, closely followed by England (5th).
In fact, the swapping of places by Senegal (18th, plus 1) and Denmark (19th, minus 1) were the only other notable changes in the Top 20.
Further down the Ranking, however, there has been no shortage of movement, with the strides made by Serbia (25th, plus 4), Algeria (34th, plus 6), Egypt (35th, plus 4), and Scotland (36th, plus 6) among the most significant.
No less impressive is the progress of Romania (46th, plus 6) and Canada (47th, plus 6), who have moved into the Top 50 at the expense of Mali (53rd, minus 8) and Saudi Arabia (54th, minus 5).
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).
