December 9 – Despite losing three of their past four matches, the US women’s team still top the FIFA world rankings, though the gap between them and second placed Germany is narrowing.
The US women have held the top spot in the World Ranking since 2017.
The Germans move into second place ahead of Sweden who are followed by England and France. Canada have moved ahead of Spain into sixth spot.
European teams are increasingly dominating the ranking though FIFA point out: “Italy (17th, minus 3) have not had a happy end to the year, falling three places. In contrast, Portugal (22nd, plus 1) and Republic of Ireland (23rd, plus 1) have finished 2022 on a high, reaching their best-ever positions.
“Turkey (64th, plus 3) had the biggest jump in terms of points (+10.23 pts) and Estonia (91st, plus 5) were the highest climbers when it came to places. No side suffered a bigger fall in places than Montenegro (96th, minus 5).”
Six of the top 10 teams are from Europe and will all be challengers for the women’s World Cup in 2023, looking to take the crown from the US.
FIFA said that 187 member associations featured in the December 2022 Ranking, out of 211 in all, the highest number ever recorded at the end of a calendar year.
To see the full ranking click here.
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