The Moroccan national football team has advanced three places to occupy, for the first time in history, the eighth position in the FIFA men’s world ranking, according to the January edition released by FIFA today, Monday.
FIFA clarified in a statement that despite the defeat in the final match of the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations, Morocco, the host country, can take pride in returning to the top ten list for the first time since April 1998 (when it occupied the tenth position), thereby achieving its best ranking in history.
Morocco’s current total points now stand at 1736.57 (+20.23). Morocco’s rise came at the expense of Croatia (ranked 11th, -1), which dropped out of the top ten, as well as Belgium (ranked 9th, -1) and Germany (ranked 10th, -1).
The top of the ranking remained unchanged, with Spain continuing in first place, followed by world champion Argentina in second place, and France in third place.
At the African level, Morocco continues to lead the continent, followed by Senegal, the Africa Cup of Nations champion (ranked 12th, +7), while Nigeria, the bronze medalist in the AFCON (currently ranked 26th), and Cameroon, which reached the quarter-finals in AFCON (currently ranked 45th), each made an unprecedented leap of 12 places.
According to FIFA, the Africa Cup of Nations impacted the distribution of continental federations in the ranking, as the Confederation of African Football now includes nine countries in the top fifty, an increase of two nations compared to the situation at the end of 2025, while both the Asian Football Confederation and CONCACAF lost one position each, dropping to four representatives each.
UEFA continues to dominate with 26 teams among the world’s top 50 national teams, while CONMEBOL has returned to having seven representatives in the top fifty list, while Oceania’s teams remain absent from the list.
