Super Eagles training. Photo credit: NFF website

Nigeria is now ranked 52nd in the world, in the latest ranking by FIFA released today 1 October.

At the ranking released last month, Nigeria was 53rd.

It was not the only country that recorded some progress in the monthly, FIFA-CocaCola ranking. Ghana also moved two places, now 25th, from 27th last month.

The leading African countries, Cote D’Ivoire and Algeria retained their ranking for October. Algeria stays at 19th and Ivory Coast 21st.

Tunisia is 36th, Senegal 38th and Cape Verde island, 41st.

Cameroon and Congo, at 48th and 49th positions complete the African parade in the top 50 footballing nations.

Egypt at 51st is like Nigeria, outside the loop.

Among the top 10 Superpowers, Argentina retains its spot as number one.

There are some notable changes however. Germany (2nd, up 1) have reclaimed second spot and trail leaders Argentina (1st, unchanged) by just 18 points.

Belgium (3rd, down 1) complete the top three.

Other climbers in the top ten include Portugal (4th, up 2) and Spain (6th, up 5), while Colombia (5th, down 1) and Brazil (7th, down 2) have lost ground.

Spain’s re-entry after three months is down to two wins in qualifiers for UEFA EURO 2016, while Wales (8th, up 1) and Austria (11th, up 2) have achieved their highest-ever rankings, with the latter having already qualified for next year’s tournament.

The biggest movers in the top 50 are Norway (34th, up 35) and Cape Verde Islands (41st, up 15).

A number of teams outside the top 50 have also made big leaps, namely Liberia (95th, up 65), South Sudan (144th, up 54), Nicaragua (95th, up 44), the Central African Republic (126th, up 42), the Cook Islands (166th, up 39), Georgia (110th, up 37), American Samoa (164th, up 35), Samoa (162nd, up 34), Finland (64th, up 28), Mauritania (89th, up 25), Antigua and Barbuda (83rd, up 22), Aruba (115th, up 22) and Burundi (113th, up 21).