New African Champions, theSuper Eagles of Nigeria, moved up a massive 22 places from 52nd to 30th spot in the latest rankings released Thursday by the world football governing body, FIFA.
The February 2013 rankingsis the best ever for Nigeria in over 30 months as the country has endured a tough curve in her football over the years.
The victory in South Africa, Nigeria’s third Africa Nations Cup win was, however, not enough to shoot her straight to the summit of teams from Africa as the Coach Stephen Keshi side only moved from 10th place to fourth position in the ranking of Africa teams
The Elephants of Cote d’Ivoire, despite exiting the Africa Cup of Nations earlierthan expected after failing 2-1 to Nigeria, remain Africa’s highest ranked team in 12th place having moved two steps in the February edition.
Mali who were mauled 4-1 by Nigeria in the semi finals, and also the Black Stars of Ghana are ranked 2nd and 3rd in Africa.
Algeria, Tunisia, Zambia, Central Africa Republic, Burkina Faso and South Africa complete the roster of Africa’s top ten teams.
Spain leads an unchanged top three ahead of Germanyand Argentina. Fourth-placeEngland climbed two placesafter beating 18th-ranked Brazil in a friendly last week. Italy dropped to No.5. Mexico leads CONCACAF nations at No. 15,and the United States dropped four to No. 32 afterlosing a World Cup qualifier to 51st-ranked Honduras. Japan leads Asian nations at No. 28, down seven places.