The Spanish team, current world champion, leads the FIFA classification for the first time and will close the year 2023 at the top, after having won the world title on August 20 in Sydney and qualifying for the final phase of the League of Nations.
This Friday, FIFA made public the last classification of the year, in which the team led by Montse Tomé rises one place in relation to the last ranking and adds 2,066 points, ahead of the United States (2,0245) and France (2,021).
The leading trio is followed by England (2014), a team that lost the World Cup final against Spain, Sweden (1998), which loses the lead by dropping four positions, Germany (1987) and the Netherlands (1986), which will be the rival. of Spain in the semifinals of the Nations League next February, in search of a place in the Paris 2024 Games.
Led by Montse Tomé, who took over from Jorge Vilda after the World Cup, La Roja qualified for the final phase of this competition as first in group A4, with 5 wins and only one defeat.
The Spanish won their first four games (2-3 against Sweden, 5-0 and 1-7 against Switzerland and 0-1 against Italy) and only lost in the fifth, in Pontevedra, against Italy (2-3), before star in a spectacular comeback in Malaga against the Nordic team (5-3).
Spain thus becomes the fourth country in the world to reach the first position in the ranking after the United States, Germany and Sweden.
Brazil is left out of the "top ten" by dropping two places and is now eleventh in the latest ranking for 2023, prepared with the results of the almost 400 international matches played since the World Cup ended until now, including the qualifiers for Paris 2024 in all confederations, except in Oceania where the Pacific Games have been played.
In addition to Spain, the Philippines (38th), Haiti (51st), Cambodia (116th) and Cape Verde (131st) have reached the highest position in their history.
FIFA highlighted that six teams appear for the first time (Central African Republic and Macau) or return (Korea DPR, American Samoa, Madagascar and Bahamas) to the table, which brings the number of teams it includes to 192, a record number that can increase in 2024.
