Nigeria’s Super Eagles rose up three spots to 63rd place in the FIFA rankings released on Thursday, despite getting knocked out in the group stage of the 2016 African Nations Championship.
Sunday Oliseh’s men were ranked at number 66 in January and with the world football governing body considering the CHAN championship for their monthly rating, the Super Eagles moved up after gathering four points from three games played.
They are now the twelfth-ranked African side behind Cote d’Ivoire, Cape Verde, Algeria, Ghana, Senegal, Tunisia, Congo, Egypt, DR Congo, Guinea and Cameroon.
Belgium remain atop the pile beating Argentina to the second position with reigning world champions Germany dropping to fourth place.
Former world champions Spain are unmoved at number three while Euro 2016 hosts France climbed up one place to the 24th spot.
The three most impressive teams for February’s ranking all come from Asia: Palestine (110, plus 21), Saudi Arabia (55, plus 20) and Korea DPR (95, plus 18) enjoyed the biggest advances since the last world ranking.
The next FIFA World Ranking will be published on 3 March 2016.
