By Sonita Ngunyi Nwohtazie
The Indomitable Lions of Cameroon have moved ten places in the latest FIFA rankings following an outstanding performance at the FIFA Qatar World Cup. The December FIFA ranking sees the side jump both at the world and continental levels. Cameroon is currently 33rd in the world and fourth in Africa unlike in the October 6 rankings which saw her at the 48th position.
The Indomitable Lions staged an out splashed performance defeating five-times champions Brazil 1-0 during their last group stage game becoming the first-ever African country to beat Brazil in the FIFA World Cup. Cameroon recorded one win one draw against Serbia and one defeat against Switzerland during their tournament in Qatar.
Despite this outstanding performance in the Qatar expedition, Cameroon again crashed out in the group stages, continuing its trend of not going past the group stages for the past 28 years. Since 1990, Cameroon has failed in all the editions to make it out of the group stages.
The performance of goal poacher Vincent Aboubakar was the hero of the country’s performance with the Al Nassr striker again finishing as his country’s top striker in a major tournament. Aboubakar scored two goals during the Qatar expedition with Choupo Moting and Castelleto scoring the others.
Cameroon’s performance showed that they can do better in the next edition of the competition which comes up in 2026. But they will first have to qualify for the tournament. Before that, Cameroon’s attention will be tilted towards qualifying for the upcoming TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations to be hosted by Ivory Coast.
Breaking the semifinals veil, the Atlas Lions of Morocco after defeating giant Portugal 1 goal to nil was the biggest winner in the FIFA rankings. Morocco takes over from Senegal at the top of the CAF rankings and 11 in the world.
The Taranga Lions who finished at the knockout stage of the 2022 FIFA World, slumped to the second position in Africa and the Carthage Eagles of Tunisia are placed Third. The Super Eagles of Nigeria and Desert Foxes of Algeria follow in fifth and sixth position respectively.
Mohammed Salah’s Egypt is placed seventh, Mali is eighth and Ivory Coast is in the ninth position. Burkina Faso concludes in the top 10 on the continent. Burkina Faso is amongst the biggest winners on the continent having moved four places from the October rankings.
