Argentina has moved to the top of FIFA’s men’s world rankings ahead of the 2026 World Cup, with France slipping to third after dropping two places. Spain remain second, while England, Portugal and Brazil sit fourth, fifth and sixth. Morocco, the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany complete the top 10.
The rankings shift comes as teams finalize preparations for the tournament. Argentina, the defending world champions, strengthened their position with friendly wins over Honduras and Iceland. Those results helped Lionel Scaloni’s side return to No. 1 for the first time since July 2025 after also finishing top of South American qualification.
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France’s build-up included a defeat to Ivory Coast, while Spain, the European champions, drew 1-1 with Iraq. England, Portugal and Brazil also remain among the highest-ranked contenders heading into the expanded 48-team World Cup.
Mauricio Pochettino’s United States men’s national team has fallen one place to 17th after a mixed run of results, including a 3-2 win over Senegal and a 2-1 loss to Germany. World Cup co-host Mexico has climbed to 14th after victories over Ghana, Australia and Serbia. Canada remains 30th.
Italy are the highest-ranked nation not taking part in the World Cup, sitting 12th in the latest standings. At the other end of the participating field, New Zealand are the lowest-ranked team in the tournament at 85th.
Russia are ranked 35th despite remaining banned from FIFA and UEFA competitions following the 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Because the team has only played friendly matches since then, those games have still counted toward FIFA’s ranking system.
FIFA’s rankings are based on an Elo-style model that adjusts points according to the result of each match, the relative strength of the opponent, the importance of the game and the expected outcome. Wins raise a team’s score and losses reduce it.
The updated rankings also influence World Cup seeding. The 48 teams are divided into four pots of 12 according to their positions, with the nine highest-ranked teams placed in Pot One alongside the three host nations. The remaining teams are distributed across the other pots, while the play-off qualifiers are placed in Pot Four with the lowest-ranked sides. Each group for the tournament is then formed by drawing one team from each pot.
