In spite of lifting the Africa cup of Nations, Nigeria is far from being the best in the continent according to the world soccer ruling body, FIFA.
The February edition of the FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking is dominated by the leading teams of the CAF Africa Cup of Nations in South Africa.
But by claiming their third title, Nigeria (30th, up 22) have not only ended a 19-year drought since they last won the tournament, but have also climbed 22 places to 30th – their best ranking since August 2010 – while beaten finalists, Burkina Faso (55th, up 37), have moved up a massive 37 places to 55th. Hosts South Africa (60th, up 25) have also enjoyed a significant leap of 25 places.
Although former Africa Cup of Nations winners Côte d’Ivoire (12th, up 2) bowed out at the quarter-final stage, the last edition’s runners-up have achieved their best-ever world ranking (12th).
However, the Elephants have not made it into the top 10, where Spain (1st, unchanged) continue to reign supreme ahead of Germany (2nd, unchanged) and Argentina (3rd, unchanged).
England (4th, up 2) complete the top four after their home win over Brazil.
The first matches of the latest round of CONCACAF qualifying matches for the 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil have resulted in improved rankings for nearly all of the teams involved, with Panama (42nd, up 4), Honduras (51st, up 8), Costa Rica (53rd, up 13) and Jamaica (56th, up 2) all making progress once again.
Only the USA (32nd, down 4) have fallen in the ranking.
Olympic champions Mexico remain in 15th place despite their goalless draw against Jamaica in the Aztec Stadium.
Venezuela (45th, up 10) have returned to the top 50, which now contains all 10 CONMEBOL teams.
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