DAVOS, Jan 19 (KUNA) -- The International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) on Monday released its monthly ranking of national teams for January confirming Spain's continued hold on first place, Morocco's entry into the world's top ten, and Kuwait's stability in the standings.
According to the FIFA, Kuwait's ranking remained unchanged at 135th place globally with a total of 1105.1 points.
FIFA announced that Spain leads the rankings with 1877.18 points narrowly ahead of world champions Argentina who continue to hold the second place with 1873.33 points while France remains in third with 1870 points.
England ranked fourth with 1834.12 points followed by Brazil in fifth place with 1760.46 points and Portugal sixth with 1760.38 points. The Netherlands occupied seventh place with 1756.27 points.
Morocco's ranking climbed into the top ten for the first time since April 1998 while recording a notable leap to eighth place worldwide, achieving the best ranking in its history with 1736.57 points an increase of 20.23 points.
Africa Cup of Nations champions Senegal continued their impressive ascent in the global rankings moving up to 12th place underlining their growing international presence following their victory over Morocco in the final.
Meanwhile Belgium slipped to ninth place while Germany ranked tenth with 1724.15 points and Croatia followed in 11th place with 1716.88 points.
FIFA also reported significant progress by Nigeria and Cameroon both reached the quarter-finals of the Africa Cup of Nations and climbed 12 places each.
The rankings further showed Algeria advancing six places to 28th globally followed by Egypt in 31st place. Meanwhile Tunisia dropped six positions to 47th worldwide.
FIFA highlighted that the AFCON has also had an impact on the size of the respective confederations' contingents in and around the upper echelons with CAF now boasting nine nations in the top 50, two more than at the end of 2025 and the AFC and Concacaf having each lost one to fall to four apiece.
Home to 26 of the leading 50 teams in the global pecking order UEFA continued to dominate while CONMEBOL once again has seven representatives inside the top 50 with OFC sides remaining absent. (end) imk.ibi