The International Federation of Football "FIFA" announced – on Thursday – the world ranking of teams for this April, as Argentina returned to the top of the ranking for the first time in 6 years.
Last month saw a number of official and friendly international matches, which contributed to changing the current ranking from the last one issued by FIFA.
Coach Lionel Scaloni's side, who won their third World Cup by beating France in the final of the Qatar World Cup last year, beat Panama and Curaçao in friendlies, during the last international calendar.
The magician Lionel Messi, captain of the Argentina national team, was on a date with history during these two matches, as he scored his 800th goal in his career with the round witch, during the victory of the "Tango" with two goals without a response against Panama, before reaching his 100th international goal when he scored 3 goals (hat-trick) in the sweeping victory with seven clean sheets over Curaçao.
It was the first time Argentina topped the world rankings since 2017, before dropping 12 places in the following year's rankings, following a disappointing participation in the 2018 World Cup in Russia.
Argentina snatched the top spot from Brazil, who suffered a surprise 1-2 loss to hosts Morocco in a friendly, which caused them to drop to third place in the world.
France ranked second in the world after defeating the Netherlands and Ireland at the beginning of the qualifiers for the European Championship "Euro 2024".
The following is the ranking of the top ten teams:
Morocco ranked 11th in the world, topping the list of African and Arab teams, surpassing Switzerland (12), the United States (13), Germany (14) and Mexico (15th).
At the level of Arab teams, Tunisia came behind its Moroccan counterpart, and ranked 28th in the world.
FIFA classification of Arab teams in order:
- Morocco (11th globally)
- Tunisia (28th globally)
- Algeria (34th globally)
- Egypt (35th globally)
- Saudi Arabia (54th globally)
- Qatar (61st globally)
- Iraq (67th globally)
- UAE (72nd globally)
- Sultanate of Oman (73rd globally)
- Jordan (84th globally)
- Bahrain (85th globally)
- Syria (90th globally)
- Palestine (93rd globally)
- Lebanon (99th globally)
- Mauritania (105th globally)
- Libya (121st globally)
- Sudan (128th globally)
- Comoros (131st globally)
- Kuwait (143rd globally)
- Yemen (157th globally)
- Djibouti (193rd globally)
- Somalia (201st globally).