Windhoek
According to the latest Fifa world rankings released yesterday, Namibia climbed an astonishing 20 places and is now ranked within the Top 100 countries in the world.
Just last month, Namibia was stationed in 118th place on the ranking released by Fifa and in the months leading up to the October release date, the country remained stagnant at 212 in the world up until August.
Namibia’s best-ever world ranking came in 1998 when the country shot to an amazing 69th place on the Fifa radar, while its worse ranking ever came in 2006 when the country was ranked at 167.
In first place on the Fifa world rankings released yesterday is Argentina, who have been topping the charts since April. In second place is Brazil, while Germany comes in at third place. Chile and Belgium are 4th and 5th, respectively.
In Africa, Namibia currently occupies 25th place, while neighbouring South Africa are stationed at 11th place in Africa and 60th in the world.
Topping the African rankings is Senegal, followed by Ivory Coast in second place, while Tunisia and Egypt are positioned in 3rd and 4th place, respectively.
To break down how the rankings work, the basic logic of the calculations is simple: any team that does well in world football wins points, which enable it to climb the world rankings.
A team’s total number of points over a four-year period is determined by adding the average number of points gained from matches during the past 12 months and the average number of points gained from matches older than 12 months, which depreciates yearly.