The Super Eagles of Nigeria will end the year 2013 as the 37th ranked football playing country, this is contained in the latest rankings released by FIFA.
Nigeria dropped one place from November but maintained the 4th position in Africa.
West African neighbours, Cote D’Ivoire maintained 17th in the world and number one in Africa, while Ghana also kept its 24th position in the world and 2nd in Africa.
World champions, Spain continue to lead the table ahead of Germany and Argentina, followed by Colombia, Portugal and Uruguay. Two Asian teams this month achieved their highest-ever rankings: the Philippines, who are now in the 127th position, up 6 places and Guam in the 161st position, up 8 places.
This is the sixth calendar year in a row that Spain will top the final ranking of the year and that comfortably gave them the ‘Team of the Year’ title.
Ukraine is the highest climber of 2013, thanks to nine wins, two draws and only one defeat. The Yellow-Blue have collected no fewer than 312 points since December 2012, moving up 29 places to 18th and gaining the title of ‘Mover of the Year’ for the first time.
In total, the results of 918 matches have been taken into consideration, many of which were friendlies (415) and more than a third of which (347) were qualifying matches for the 2014 FIFA World Cup that will take place in Brazil in the summer of 2014.
The top ten remain unchanged.
