African delight and Japanese jump amid Fifa Women’s World Ranking

The latest instalment of the Fifa/Coca-Cola Women’s World Ranking™ marks a number of milestones.

The first release of 2025 features more teams than ever before: 196. Djibouti make their debut, entering the global pecking order in 195th place. This is just one of the ranking-related storylines served up the last couple of months, during which 127 internationals have been contested, including African qualifiers for the Fifa Women’s World Cup Brazil 2027™.

The USA still lead the table despite having suffered a 2-1 reverse at home in the SheBelieves Cup trophy decider; their conquerors, Japan (5th, up 3), return to the top four for the first time since December 2015. Nothing has changed immediately below the Stars and Stripes, with Spain (2nd), Germany (3rd) and England (4th) remaining their closest pursuers. Moving down, Sweden (6th), Canada (7th) and Brazil (8th) have all slipped a spot, while Korea DPR (9th) and the Netherlands (10th) have not budged and continue to round off the top 10.

The latest #FIFARanking is here! 👊

— FIFA Women's World Cup (@FIFAWWC) March 6, 2025

The Nadeshiko are the only team in the upper echelons to have climbed more than two places. On the other hand, a glance further down the standings reveals a string of remarkable rises, including by Puerto Rico (81st, up 4), Montenegro (84th, up 4), El Salvador (85th, up 5), Nepal (99th, up 4), the United Arab Emirates (112th, up 4), Cabo Verde (125th, up 4) and Cyprus (127th, up 6).

Burkina Faso (132nd) and Benin (147th) have also enjoyed impressive progressions (both up 5), but they are eclipsed by two fellow African nations: Tanzania (138th) and Kenya (142nd) share the honour of being this edition’s biggest climbers in terms of places, having both soared up seven spots.

There could well be more Caf celebrations on the cards when the next instalment is released in June, as four African sides (Chad, Eritrea, Libya and Sudan) are just one official match away from making history by sealing their first appearance in the standings.

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