Argentina, at the top of the FIFA rankings: the numbers of the national team to close 2023 as number ‘1’ in the world

The Argentine national team closes the year, once again, on the top of the world. As happened in 2022 for becoming champions of the World Cup in Qatar, the Albiceleste appeared on Thursday again at number 1 in the FIFA rankings, a position they were able to defend throughout the year and despite the defeat against Uruguay in the qualifiers the La Stadium candy box.

In the last update of the year, the Albiceleste was in first position with 1,855 points, France remains second with 1,845 and England completes the podium with 1,800 units.

There are no new entries in the Top Ten of the ranking, which is completed by Belgium, Brazil, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Italy and Croatia. Uruguayeleventh, is the third South American team in the standings.

Only eleven games have been played since the previous ranking update, nine of which were from the Pacific Games, so there haven’t been many changes in that regard.

After their victories against Venezuela (50°, -1) e Mexico (15th, -1), Colombia (14th, +1) moved up one position to the detriment of the Americans. Despite the drop of one position, the Venezuelans remain in the top 50 at the last minute.

The numbers of the Scaloneta in 2023

Unlike other world champion teams, Argentina did not puncture. On the contrary, he had a near-perfect year in which he recorded nine wins and one defeat in the ten matches he played, four of which were friendly matches.

In fact, the only two goals received by the Albiceleste goalkeepers, in this case alone Emiliano Dibu Martinez who scored every minute in goal – participated in the defeat against Uruguay at La Bombonera.

Subsequently, he won all victories against Panama (friendly, 2-0), Curacao (friendly, 7-0), Australia (friendly, 2-0), Indonesia (friendly, 2-0), Ecuador (Qualifying, 1-0), Bolivia (Qualifying, 3-0), Paraguay (Qualifying, 1-0), Peru (Qualifying, 2-0) e Brazil (Qualifying, 1-0).

How many times has Argentina been at the top of the table?

The first time that the Albiceleste was at the top of the ranking was in March 2007. In October of the same year it regained the position until June 2008. It was first from July to October 2015, and finally, from April, from 2016 in March 2017.

What method does FIFA use to determine classification?

In August 2018, world football’s governing body developed a new method called “SUM”, which is based on adding or subtracting the points won or lost in a match from the total points up to that point, instead to calculate the average points per match over a given period of time, as was the case in the previous version of the world rankings.