Nigeria has moved up 22 places on the February edition of the FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking released Thursday.
The Super Eagles, who edged Burkina Faso 1-0 in Sunday’s final in South Africa to win the competition for the first time in 19 years, rose to 30th place in the table, their best position for three years.
Their opponents, who exceeded expectations by reaching the final, have moved up a massive 37 places to 55th.
Ivory Coast, beaten by Nigeria in the quarterfinals, remained Africa’s highest-ranked side in 12th, followed by the Black Stars of Ghana seven places below.
Surprise package Cape Verde, who reached the quarterfinals on their debut, moved up 13 places to 63rd.
Concacaf’s highest-ranked team was Mexico in 15th while the best Asia could muster was Japan, who is 28th.
Spain continues to reign supreme ahead of Germany and Argentina. England moved to fourth place after their home win over Brazil.
South America showed their strength-in-depth as Venezuela climbed 10 places to 45th, leaving all of the continent’s 10 teams in the top 50.
The Turks and Caicos Islands, Bhutan and San Marino were tied in 207th and last place.
1. (1) Spain
2. (2) Germany
3. (3) Argentina
4. (6) England
5. (4) Italy
6. (5) Colombia
7. (7) Portugal
8. (8) Netherlands
9. (10) Croatia
10. (9) Russia