By Fatih Erel
ISTANBUL (AA) - Several countries in football made significant gains in the latest edition of the FIFA World Ranking with Turkey among them after beating the last world champs France in June.
"While Belgium (1st, unchanged) continue at the top, increasing their advantage over France (2nd, unchanged) following UEFA EURO qualifying wins over Kazakhstan and Scotland, there was plenty of movement elsewhere in the top 20," FIFA said in a statement on Friday.
"Portugal (5th, up 2), for example, moved into the top five on the back of their UEFA Nations League triumph, while the Netherlands (14th, up 2) edged upwards after reaching the final of the same competition. A trio of former world champions are also on the rise. Spain (7th, up 2), Germany (11th, up 2) and Italy (14th, up 3) all ascended the global ladder on the back of positive results in the EURO qualifiers," FIFA said.
Turkey also are on the rise as they moved to 37th place with 1,467 points from 39th place.
In June, Turkey defeated reigning world champs France 2-0 in UEFA Euro 2020 qualifiers in Group H.
FIFA men's world rankings list for June is as follows:
Rankings | Teams | Points | Change |
1 | Belgium | 1746 | - |
2 | France | 1718 | - |
3 | Brazil | 1681 | - |
4 | England | 1652 | - |
5 | Portugal | 1631 | +2 |
6 | Croatia | 1625 | -1 |
7 | Spain | 1617 | +2 |
8 | Uruguay | 1615 | -2 |
9 | Switzerland | 1605 | -1 |
10 | Denmark | 1589 | - |