France 2019 Fallout: Nigeria moves two steps in FIFA Ranking, USA is undisputed No.1

Harry Awurumibe

 

Apparently for the only victory Nigeria got against South Korea at the just concluded FIFA Women’s World Cup final in France, the country has now moved up by two steps in the recently released FIFA Women’s Monthly Ranking which has the United States of America (USA) as the undisputed World Number One..

Nigeria moved from her pre-France 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup 38^th position to 36^th now on the log and by extension the Number One country in Africa with her closest rivals –Cameroon and South Africa ranked 41^st and 49^th in the world and 2^nd and 3^rd positions in Africa respectively.        No other country in Africa made the first 50 teams in the world.

Meanwhile, USA has maintained her number one status with a total of 2,180 points as against second placed Germany with 2, 059 and Netherlands’ 2,037 respectively. The Dutch jumped 5 steps to become world No. 3 by finishing second in France 2019. Netherlands displaced England as No. 3.

France remained at number 4 while England dropped 2 places just as Sweden courtesy of her third place finish in France moved up three steps with Canada plunging down to No. 7 in the world.

But a closer look at the world’s first 50 nations showed that all the 24 countries that participated in the last World Cup final in France are within the Club50 with Papua New Guinea ranked No.50 while Thailand which suffered a humiliating 0-13 loss to Team USA ranked 39 oer and above Cameroon and South Africa respectively.