FIFA rankings: Vietnam earn highest rank in 20 years

With impressive results during the 2019 King's Cup in Thailand earlier this month, finishing second at the friendly tournament, Vietnam surpassed Jordan and Estonia to rank 96th in the world with 1,232 points, up two places compared to the previous rankings.

This is the highest place for Vietnamese football in the FIFA men’s rankings for the last two decades, given their highest rank ever was 84th in 1998.

Coach Park Hang-seo’s side are currently ranked 15th in Asia and will definitely book a slot in Pot Two for the second round draw of the 2022 FIFA World Cup qualifiers for national teams which are members of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC).

Not having to play against strong opponents in the same pot like Iraq (77th), Uzbekistan (82nd) or Syria (85th) gives Vietnam an advantage that could just help the team reach the World Cup final qualifiers for the first time ever.

Top 15 Asian nations in the latest FIFA men’s rankings. (Photo: Asian Football Confederation)

Right behind Vietnam in Southeast Asia are Thailand with 1,165 points. The “War Elephants” did not perform well at the King's Cup 2019 on home soil, which led to them dropping two places to 116th in the world. The most impressive team in the region is Malaysia as they move up nine places to 159th, pushing Indonesia to 160th and Singapore to 162nd.

FIFA Day friendly and Euro 2020 qualifying matches ended with many surprises, resulting in a lot of changes in the latest FIFA’s rankings. However, the Top 4 remains stable as Belgium stay atop, followed by France, Brazil and England, respectively.

Thanks to the UEFA Nations League trophy, Cristiano Ronaldo and Portugal collected 24 points to earn 1,631 points in total, thereby advancing two places to 5th in the world. Iran moved up one position to rank 20th in the world and stay atop of Asia with 1,518 points.