November 2015 Rankings have come out and Belgium has reached the top of the table for the first time ever. Eden Hazard and his national team have one more thing to celebrate after qualifying for the Euro 2016 last month.
From being in 71st place in 2007 to number one by the end of 2015 is a huge accomplishment. After spending most of this year in the top 10, they have leapfrogged Germany and Argentina to claim the top spot. With not that many international games in the following months, they can almost be confident on finishing the year where they stand now.
Belgium's rise through the years
Belgium's heroic rise from #71 to #1 in the FIFA world rankings in just 8 years. pic.twitter.com/r9vSF4Q5y5
— FourFourTweet (@FourFourTweet) November 5, 2015
Top 10 Moves
While Belgium made history this past month, it was Chile the team that had the biggest move in the top-10. They moved from ninth to fifth place and are even ahead of Brazil which fell one spot to eighth place. Germany stayed in second place and Argentina swapped spots with Belgium (3rd). Austria entered the top ten moving up one spot from where it was ranked in October 2015. England also went up to ninth place.
UEFA
Germany ended the Euro Qualifiers at the top of Group D with a 7-1-2 record. Those two losses may have harmed their chances to reclaim the top spot according to FIFA. The best team in the Euro Qualifiers was England, that won all of their ten games in the tournament and ended with 30 points.
CONMEBOL
Argentina is still the best team in this region but not the best in the world anymore. They lost Lionel Messi due to an injury and have not won in any of their two first games of World Cup qualifiers. Chile beat Brazil and Peru to start things off towards Russia 2018. Brazil is at the lowest point it has been since July 2014 (10).
CONCACAF
Mexico is making a late run
CAF
Five of the best six teams in CAF fell off from where they were in October. The highest-ranked team is still Ivory
AFC
This confederation still has Iran as its leader despite their drop of four spots to 43rd place. Korea made a jump to the top 50 and is now in 48th place. Japan moved up five spots as well and closes up the best 50 teams. Australia keeps dropping places and is now in 60th place which is still better from where they ended last year.
OFC
Last but not least is the OFC. Here there was not a single team that can claim they had a positive month. None of them moved up. Eight teams dropped spots from where they were last month and only three maintained their same positions. Despite the fact that New Zealand dropped eleven places, they still lead the OFC (159).
Top 20 List
Best and Worst Movers
While we have been talking about teams making slight moves up and down the table, there are some that really appeared to be way ahead or behind from where FIFA had them standing last month. Going up 39 places was Chad, and they landed in 136. Going down 44 spots, Sudan had the worst move as they are now 128th.