Nigeria’s Super Eagles climbed 12 places, moving from 45th to 33rd position in the latest rankings released by world soccer ruling body, FIFA on Thursday morning, Completesports.com reports.
The Super Eagles gained 48 points, up 1481 from their previous 1433.
The three-time African champions are also now ranked third in Africa behind the Teranga Lions of Senegal (20th in the world, up two spots) and Carthage Eagles of Tunisia (29th in the world, down four spots).
Gernot Rohr’s team reached the semifinals of the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations in Egypt and won the bronze medal,edging out Tunisia 1-0 in the third place match.
The Super Eagles played eight matches during the period under review. The West Africans won five and lost two of the seven matches they played at AFCON 2019.
They fell to 1-0 defeat to Senegal in a friendly encounter ahead of the AFCON 2019 finals.
Newly crowned African champions, the Desert Foxes of Algeria, who defeated Nigeria in the semifinals, made the biggest moves both by places and points in the global ranking, going up from 68th to 40th and gaining 117 points.
Belgium remain world No.1, while Brazil climbed from third to second following their Copa America triumph. France, England and Uruguay make up the rest of the top five teams.
The next FIFA world ranking will be published on 19 September, 2019.
By Adeboye Amosu
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COMMENTS
Nigeria have been third in Africa since at least April or May. We passed Morocco who were previously 3rd at the end of the AFCON qualifiers.
We have now put distance between us and Ghana, Congo, Egypt and Morocco, however, Algeria are now 4th from 11th and breathing down our necks.
Tunisia dropped points and we are gaining on them. It will not be long before the top three in Africa will be Senegal, Nigeria and Algeria.
The Super Eagles would have been rated 2 or even 1 in Africa had they beat Algeria and clinched the title. Exactly, Tunisia will soon be out of top 3 in Africa if Senegal, Nigeria and Algeria remain consistent and the Carthage Eagles decline as the 2021 AFCON qualifiers will soon be underway.
Algeria will not be consistent.
They won the competition because it was hosted in their region.
The first Afcon Algeria won was as host and have struggled outside their region.If Cameroon had not been stripped of the hosting right Algeria would not have won.
Super eagles and Senegal stood a better chance had Cameroon hosted.
We have a big chance to win the cup in Cameroon in 2021.The only north African country that can win outside their region is Egypt because they are a physical side.
Senegal are too far ahead for us to catch them even if we won AFCON.
Let us be happy with consolidating 3rd place. We over took Egypt, Morocco, Ghana, Congo this year, and with this result we made sure Algeria corps not over take us.
What are the benefits? With just two wins in our next two matches we can come 30th in the table.
If we come 30th or below in the table that means that the thresh hold of our players being eligible to play in the English premier League reduces from 75% of matches in the last two years (1 year for under 21s) to 60% of matches.
If we continue on this trajectory, the threshold reduces to 40% of matches.
That means by this time next year, Omeruo, Onyekuru, Chukwueze, Osimhen, Awoniyi etc could be eligible to play in the EPL if they continue to be picked to play for Nigeria
And there was once a time when tactful coaches sank as deep below 60th in the world and 14th in Africa. The tactless one has brought us to within touching distance of being the best on the continent, yet prisoners of hatred will claim we aren’t making any progress. Hmmmm…! The world is an irony….!
I tire o. It is one thing to have tactics, it is another thing to have the players with enough solidarity and motivation to carry it out. If there is anything this man has done, he has been able to get this people to play for him and for Nigeria. We now have serious competition in the squad. Players now refuse to eat after defeat. That alone for me is progress.
They spent a lot of their time abusing the best coach of our time, as they assumed and exhibit the stupidity and embarrassed Nigerians everywhere. The coach deserves every dollar he earns. In fact, l say, he is God sent.
No mind them, Mr epistle writer alias ex cricket international lost his voice during that period. The point is, Mr rohr actually floored most them after they failed woefully in their evil bid to impose players on the coach.
What coach Rohr needs now is a strong assistant. One that will not eye his job, will not destroy the team spirit and who is tactically sound( aware of the new trends in the game). Not that Rohr is not sound, he just need to learn some new tricks.
Well said @ Dr Drey. This is the same tactless coach who has taken us from the doldrums to the limelight of African football. A feat which the so-called tactful and competent coaches couldn’t achieve. What a way to show haters the middle finger @ coach Gernot Rohr!
SENEGAL HAVE THE BEST SOCCER LEGS IN AFRICA AS AT NOW BUT THE TRUTH OF THE MATTER IS THAT THEY CANT WIN ANY MEANINGFUL LAURELS WITH THEIR INDIGENOUS COACH.THEY NEED A SOUND COACH TO ANNEX THEIR TALENTS AND TEACH THEM HOW TO PLAY WITH EASE I MEAN WITH BRAIN AND WIN BIGGERLY ,THEY PLAY MORE PHYSICAL THAN TECHNICAL IF SENEGAL CAN PLAY WITH THEIR BRAIN NO TEAM IN AFRICAN CAN COME NEAR THEM.
AS FOR NIGERIA I KEEP SILENT BUT I KNOW WE NEED A SOUND COACH AND I BELIEVE PICKNICK TOO KNOWS THIS ,HE WAS ONLY PLAYING POLITICS WHEN HE SAID ROHR WAS GOING NO WHERE FEW DAYS TO OUR THIRD PLACE MATCH TO AVOID DISTRACTING THE TEAM. NEWS HAD IT THAT AFTER WE WON BRONZE PICKNICK SNUBBED ROHR.
THOSE WHO RUN FOOTBALL IN NIGERIA KNOW ITS VERY SENSITIVE AND VOLATILE I KNOW PICKNICK WONT JOKE WITH HIS PROGRESSIVE CAREER MOST ESPECIALLY WHEN MAJOR STAKEHOLDERS HAVE COMPLAINED THAT THOUGH ROHR IS A GOOD COACH YET HE DOES NOT HAVE WHAT IT TAKES TO POLISH OUR FOOTBALL STRUCTURE TO MATCH OUR POTENTIALS,ANOTHER REASON PICKNICK WOULD DANCE TO THE TUNE OF PUBLIC OPINION IS THE FACT THAT EFCC IS TRAILING HIM AND HE KNOWS PLACATING WE THE MASSES IS THE BEST THING AS WE THE GENERAL PUBLIC CAN IN TURN BEG THE POWER THAT BE TO OVER LOOK IS INADEQUACY FOR HIS ACHIEVEMENT
LASTLY I SOMETHING HAS TO BE DONE ABOUT U23 WE NEED A COACH IN PERSON OF SIASIA WITH HIS DUTCH ASSISTANCE .THE SUCCESS OF OUR U23 WILL SAY MUCH ABOUT OUR CHANCES OF NEXT WORLD CUP.
@xxxxxx or whatever….. Garbage!
@XXXXXXX
Are you high on crack? Apart from taking up valuable space writing nonsense, what’s the need for the UPPER CASE letters? It’s another assault on the eyes and brain.
Go to adult education classes. I know you can change, only if you make the effort. YOU WRITE TO COMMUNICATE (sic).
What is this one saying?
@ tayo looool! Nna, the thing tire me oooh. Chai. How can somebody spend his precious time to type garbage…it’s really a pity
What is the purpose of moving from 45 to 33 without have a solid team Nigerian can be bold and proud of?
What is the purpose of having a coach in charge of Super Eagles for 3 years and the team still struggling?
My question now is, he needs someone as an assistant coach to read games for him but who is it going to pay for his service?
Is coach Agu and coach Rohr’s assistant coach capable of coaching Super Eagles?
We should stop deceiving yourselves. No way out with these coaches. God bless Nigeria!!!
Ok now no more Rohr must go it is now who is best to assist him to read games for him LEEEMAOO!!!!!! I laugh in Yoruba.
Please I prefer a coach that is struggling but is able to make my team move from below 60th position in world ranking and below 14th position in Africa to now 33rd in the world and 3rd in Africa to the very tactful ones that took us to those poor position in the first instance.
God bless Nigeria.
No mind am…!
A team that rises an average of 10 places on the FIFA ranking per annum is struggling and not solid. That clown needs serious deliverance. E be like say dem dey light knock-out for inside in brain.
If the eagles keep rising at this rate wont we be within the top 15 in the world by time world cup comes in 2022…?
Hehehehehe…Which team is not solid, which team is struggling..? The one that went unbeaten in Africa for 2 years and has only lost 3 competitive matches to African opposition in 3 years is not solid …..? Or the one that won bronze in a 24 team continental competition…? Mr man…have you eaten today at all…? because e b like say eye dey turn you o…!
Sorry for my mistakes.
However, I appreciate Oga Rohr a lot and he deserves a loud ovation for managing our team.
But shall we continue this way? Absolutely no… no…. no.
I asked a question earlier and nobody answered. Here is the question again, Super Eagles needed a realiable coach that can read game for coach Rohr but who will pay for his Services?
The current team of Nigeria cannot compete with top teams in Africa and globally. This Super Eagles team is not a team you can rely on. The players are trying but the coach is letting them down.
They can only win against unorganized teams. The record is there. I’m pretty sure of this that if we play against Madagascar and Algeria team again, Eagles will struggle and will be beaten again and again because Oga Rohr’s team can not play against a well organized team.
My advice to coach Rohr supporters club is this, the truth already being said based on what we saw in Russia and in Egypt. In one word, coach Rohr’s Super Eagles lacks confidence and tactics with no patern.
So therefore my people, if the coach stays till the next world cup and Afcon, we should say goodbye to our football because what happens in Russia also happens in Egypt and is a contentious issue which will letting Nigerian team down again.
No time to check time. It is time for Oga Rohr to go to Morocco or somewhere else in Africa. The superiority of the Super Eagles team is way higher than Oga Rohr knowledge. I’m warning you people again. Ire o. God bless Nigeria!!!
Hehehehe….How delusional can a man be…?
So Tunisia with Alain Giresse, Cameroun with Seedorf and co, SA with your loud-mouth tin-god Baxter, Guinea with Paul Put (Afcon silver winner 2013) are unorganized teams abi..???
Oga, please help yourself and just crawl back to wherever you emerged from. It was this same you who came out to congratulate rohr for is tactical masterstrokes in the R16 and Q/final of the AFCON. All of a sudden now all the teams that came to AFCON are unorganized teams. Only Madagascar (that was torn apart 3-0 by the same Tunisia we dominated in the 3rd place match) and Algeria are the organised teams in Africa now….LMAO
True true…..you need rehabilitation. All your rants do not add up anymore. All you do nowadays is just to look for anything to discredit Rohr’s hardwork. You talk as if we used to be world beaters before but have dropped to ground zero. Let me remind you that even our greatest teams of all times have only won 2 games in one world cup. So quit this you unsensical rant of “..eagles under Rohr cannot compete globally…” Stop deluding yourself with our underaged competitons successes. At senior level, we have never been able to compete globally….and it just doesnt happen all of a sudden, it happens with gradual upward progress like we are witnessing at the moment under rohr. From not qualifying for 2 afcons in a rohr to wining a bronze medal and rising from 67th in the world to 33rd. By the time Rohr takes us into the top 20 in FIFA rankings within the next 2 years, then we can start dreaming of competing globally.
For now, you have no point….awawi oniye igba is wat you are just ranting about…!!!
Hahahaha! Lamentations of Omo9ja! The Super Eagles have made some of us proud with their steady rise in ranking. We love their improvements. We have seen the team spirit, and the desire to adorn the national jersey. They didn’t win the trophy, they lost to the eventual winners, Algeria. But we are proud of them and support them to do more.
Omo9ja not everybody is negative and critical as you are.
One law of success in life is to celebrate the little success you make in life as you work towards the ultimate.
GBAM!
Dr drey and co
I don’t hate Rohr and I can’t because he has given his best which obviously has taken us thus far but sirs let your mind be enlightened to see ahead of time . Good three years with the team still eagles don’t have a pattern of playing don’t let us be contented by 33 position it’s just statistics and besides can’t you all see that African football is not developing compared to the rest of the world..
All what your coach has been doing is to keep playing two defensive mid fielders why relying on the speed of flank players to score which is easy to read by opposing teams Nigeria is too big a country in African to be playing defensive minded game Rohr does not have what it takes to use his wit to unlock opposing team defenses
The position where Nigeria is today should not only be credited to Rohr but Nff also and also the emergence of golden eaglets of 2013 and 2015
Sir how can a coach went to a tournament with one offensive midfield (Iwobi)
With rohr still in power eagles will remain difficult to beat but will not be enterprising
You said….”Good three years with the team still eagles don’t have a pattern of playing…”
Then all of a sudden you now went…”All what your coach has been doing is to keep playing two defensive mid fielders why relying on the speed of flank players to score”….pls is that not a pattern….? Or has hatred imprisoned you this bad…?
Pls what pattern does Senegal play….? What pattern does Tunisia play….? Yet these 2 teams have been ranked 1 and 2 in Africa for over 5 years now.
Is it not when you have a pattern that your game will be easy to read by your opponents..? As a matter of fact, tell us what pattern does Belgium who is currently ranked no 1 in the world play…? Apart from Brazil and Spain and maybe Germany, which other country in the world has a defined pattern…?
You claim where we are is just statistics……pls did we gather those statistics by losing matches and not qualifying for competitions…?
If playing 2 ‘defensive midfielders’ means defensive football to you, then i’m sorry but you dont know jack about football…and by the way etebo wasnt a defensive midfielder…he played as a deep lying midfielder. When you play a 4-2-3-1, you need
an anchorman and a deep lying play-maker/box-to-box midfielder in the defensive side of midfield to shield your defense and give your full backs liberty to overlap….that was why we saw ola aina and awaziem getting forward quite often throughout AFCON.
If you want to see defensive football go and watch a vintage Mourinho or Diego Simeone….or better still watch Italian sides of the early to mid 90s, that’s when you’ll see real defensive football. Tell me one match in which the SE has ever parked the bus under Rohr. We’ve scored 2 or more goals in more than 60% of all our matches and you call that defensive football…?
So if African football is not developing, it is the fault of the G.Rohr. Is it national team coaches that develop a nation’s football or the administrators (with proper planning and programs)….???
If you think where we are today is becos of 3 2013 and 2 2015 u17 players, pls where did we get to when we won u17 in 2007, silver in olympics 2008 and silver in u17 in 2009….(3 successful youth teams in 3 years). Let me remind you, we didn’t win one match in 2010 WC and couldn’t qualify for AFCON in 2012.
Pls go and re-evaluate yourself and ask if your are being sincere or you just want to rubbish a man’s harwork.
FIFA doesn’t use age grade matches like U13, U17, u20, u23, etc to rank. Credit should be given to Rohr for this tremendous rise in FIFA ranking. We were No. 67 in the world and 14 in Africa when he came in 2016, now we rank 33 in the world and 3rd in Africa. This incredible. Bravo to Rohr.
In the recent past, Nigeria played enterprising football, and failed to qualify for 2 consecutive Afcons. If we had not hired Rohr when we did, we would have failed to qualify for the world cup, our enterprising football notwithstanding. Na enterprising football we go chop? All the enterprising football in the world with no results does us no good. I hate Mourinho’s style of play, but I respect him for one thing….his results! Mourinho once said he emphasizes on defensive play because if your opponent can’t score against you, they can’t beat you. To Mourinho, defense is the foundation of success. Rohr appears to have the same conservative logic. However, under Rohr, we have seen some really good football as well. No PLAYING TO THE GALLERY, as we used to see in the past. But good, sensible football. And we have the results we need, which is the bottom line!
Morocco and some other African countries are waiting to snatch Rohr up if we let him go. If Rohr must go, then we need someone better than him to replace him. Anything else will take us on a tragic backward trajectory! I remember the pain of watching 2 consecutive Afcons with Nigeria absent. Rohr has brought us relief, and the future is looking bright. IF IT AINT BROKE, NO NEED TO FIX IT! I hope Nigerians will allow this man to finish what he has started. By the time he is finished with this team, we will have a team as good as the 1990s squad. Maybe even better.
Great analysis pompei respect!
Thanks, Greenturf.
I wonder y people keep saying No Pattern of play yet, we win most games we play.if Nigeria play 6 games, we hardly lose one.
So my question is how do we beat other teams with no pattern?
I can’t understand the English.
Wether it is kick and follow, kick me I kick u, all rushing out all rushing in, defending or attacking..they are all Pattern.
And if I can’t find any name to our pattern that we use to win games then..let me give it name.
Vanished or Invisible Pattern.
But what we use either visible or not is a pattern.
Leave them….people who are blinded by hatred will say we dont have pattern. They must be watching our matches from a hole in the wall.
They have not noticed that we rely on pace from the wings (which is our biggest strength) and quick transitions using side overloads to catch our opponents of guard. Almost half the goals (4 out of 9) we scored at afcon were assisted by our full backs. Another 4 were from set pieces. 5 out of 9 where scored by one man (which shows where all our attacks dovetail to while chukweze’s goal agaisnt SA was a product of side overload. Go and review our matches in the qualifiers and you will see a similar trend. Yet we don’t have a pattern o….!
Hatred not only denies people of sight…it also denies them of reason…!
@drey homie, make una leave these highly delusional self-serving gang and let’s Allow OUR ROHR to Continually shove the middle finger down their wet asses and throats…assholes!!!
Having our current coaches in charge of our football won’t help. Why? Because we need modern vibrant young local coaches that can interpret the game, self believe with a big vision of achieving a bigger goal. A great manager with a big heart and integrity.
The most painful thing is that we have good players and goalkeepers presently but they will not give them a chance to prove their worth.
NFF have brainwashed most of us but as a Nigerian who knew their politics game will rescue his Country from them. They can’t do without correction. Money changed hands. We
Saw what happened between CAF and our NFF president, vice president and Mr. Diko? Do we think they are doing us a favour? I don’t think so.
They just want a coach they can use just any how. Ask Mr. Rohr, he will tell you. They are so bossy telling the coach who to be invited to the national team but if the coach refused to do their wishes, the coach is gone.
No wonder we are seeing the likes of Akpeyi in the national team while we have better goalkeepers and players to what we have currently. It is a big problem and a big shame that this is still happening in our system. I will keep telling you Nigerians the truth hopefully, that will help. God bless Nigeria!!!