adminTedious Manyepo Harare Bureau
RESURGENT Zimbabwe Warriors have continued with their revival story as they have moved three steps up the ladder on the Fifa Coca-Cola latest rankings. Callisto Pasuwa’s men now sit on 112th place with 332 points up from 115 in June when they had 302 points. They share the same position with Puerto Rico who moved a massive 46 places up. The Warriors have also crawled one step forward in Africa where they are now on position 31.
This is despite that the Warriors have largely been inactive in the past month since they booked their place in the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations with a 3-0 drubbing of Malawi on June 4. Although the team took part in the Cosafa tournament in Namibia where they were knocked out in the group stages, the competition is not considered by the World football mother body in the rankings.
Swaziland, who might join the Warriors at the Afcon in Gabon next year if permutations fall to their side, moved 14 places up and are now ranked nine places better than Zimbabwe. Algeria (32 in the World) are still the best African team followed by Ivory Coast (35) with Ghana (36) on third place.
Egypt (43), Tunisia (45), Cameroon (53), Morocco (54), Congo DR (59), Mali (61) and Cape Verde Islands (62) complete Africa’s top 10 teams. The Warriors stocks has been rising Pasuwa took over the mentorship of the senior national side.
At one point the Zimbabwe Warriors hit a very low ebb which saw them ranked 131 in the world. Warriors benefactor Wicknell Chivayo saluted the players’ determination and said they should maintain the never-say die spirit to continue rising in the rankings.
“This achievement is dedicated to them to show that it just takes some determination, sacrifice and vision to turn dreams into reality,” said Chivayo. Djibout, Eritrea, Somalia and Tonga are the lowest ranked nations in the world sharing 205th position and without any points yet.
Meanwhile, Wales, propelled by an impressive European Championship campaign, climbed 15 places to move into 11th, two places ahead of England. Chris Coleman’s charges reached the last four in France in Wales’ first major tournament since 1958 and lost to eventual winners Portugal.
England, the 1966 World Cup winners, exited in the round of 16 after a humiliating defeat to Iceland which saw them drop two places to 13th. Iceland, the smallest nation ever to have qualified for the European Championship, with a population of 330,000 saw their fairytale run end in the quarter-finals but saw their rankings jump 12 places to 22.
There were no changes in the top five rankings with Copa America finalists Argentina retaining top spot, followed by Belgium, Colombia, Germany and Chile.
Five times World champions Brazil, who failed to progress past the group stages of Copa America for the first time since 1987, are on the brink of dropping out of the top 10, ranked at ninth, ahead of Italy. European Championship finalists France jumped 10 places to move to 7th, one place behind winners Portugal.
Fifa Rankings: Top 10 (last month’s positions in brackets)
1. Argentina (1)
2. Belgium (2)
3. Colombia (3)
4. Germany (4)
5. Chile (5)
6. Portugal (8)
7. France (17)
8. Spain (6)
9. Brazil (7)
10. Italy (12)
Online Reporter