The Super Eagles of Nigeria have dropped six places from the 38th to the 44th spot in the latest edition of the monthly FIFA Rankings released on Thursday.
Many had expected some upward movement for the Super Eagles having recorded a big 4-0 win and a 1-1 draw against Cameroon in the World Cup qualifiers in the period under review.
However, the reverse turned to be the case as Nigeria dropped six places overall albeit moved up one spot from 6th in Africa to 5th.
It is, however, worthy to note that while the results from the World Cup qualifiers did not help improve the Super Eagles’ ratings, it had a negative effect on the Indomitable Lions who dropped 10 places to now occupy the 45th spot just behind Nigeria.
The roll call of the top four teams in Africa has Egypt, Tunisia, Senegal and Congo DR.
On the world stage, Germany are back at the summit as they have pushed Brazil to the second spot.
The Cristiano Ronaldo led Portuguese side are now third in the world while Argentina and Belgium are fourth and fifth respectively.
Among the most notable climbers are the Cape Verde Islands (67, up 47), Luxembourg (101, up 35), Bolivia (46, up 22) and Denmark (26, up 20), this on the back of stunning results in qualifying against South Africa, France, Chile and Poland respectively.
Luxembourg are also one of four teams to have reached an all-time high position in the latest Ranking, along with Peru (12, up 3), Northern Ireland (20, up 3) and Syria (75, up 5).
The next FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking will be published on October 16.
