According to FIFA’s monthly rankings, Nigeria’s national football team, the Super Eagles, will end 2022 as the fifth best team in Africa and 35th in the world.
FIFA released its final rankings for the year on Thursday, Brazil remain the best team in the world, despite not progressing beyond the quarter-finals of Qatar 2022.
Argentina, who were crowned world champions for the third time last Sunday, moved up to second place, ahead of Qatar 2022 from third place. France is third, while Belgium and England are fourth and fifth, respectively.
Poor year
2022 has largely been a disappointment for the Super Eagles as they reached the second round of the Africa Cup of Nations in Cameroon before missing out on a seventh World Cup appearance against Ghana in March.
The Black Stars pipped the Super Eagles to a Qatar 2022 ticket on the away goals rule.
Unfortunately, the Black Stars did not progress beyond the group stage, despite a thrilling 3-2 win over South Korea and Cristiano Ronaldo and his Portugal team-mates impressing in a nervous 3-2 win in the end.
Disappointment in official matches aside, the Eagles did not fare better in the few friendlies they played during the year.
Before the start of the World Cup, Portugal beat the Eagles 4-0 in Lisbon. The Eagles’ biggest loss in nearly three decades followed another 2-0 defeat at the hands of Costa Rica in San Jose.
The Super Eagles also lost their friendly matches against Algeria, Mexico and Ecuador
In their first ranking of the year released in February, FIFA ranked the Super Eagles 32nd in the world and third in Africa behind Senegal and Morocco.
The nation’s best ranking in 2022 was in March, when the Eagles were ranked 30th.
Although 2022 was a bad year for the Eagles, they finished a notch better than 2021 when they finished the year in 36th place.
Roaring lions
While it was a torrid year for the Eagles, the opposite was true for Morocco’s Atlas Lions, who climbed to 11th place, the highest ever in their history.
Having become the first African nation to reach the semi-finals, where they were beaten by France, Morocco are now the 11th highest ranked African team in the world.
It means Morocco, who lost 2-1 to Croatia in the third-place play-off, are now above Germany in 14th, Mexico in 15th and Uruguay in 16th.
Africa’s other World Cup flags, Senegal, Tunisia and Cameroon, were ranked 19th, 30th and 33rd respectively. Ghana, the other African country in the Qatar 2022 World Cup, is ranked 58th.
FIFA will publish the next ranking in February 2023.
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