The United States remained at No. 22 in the final FIFA World Ranking of the year, it was announced Thursday.

Belgium was named the ranking’s team of the year for the second successive time. The Red Devils have held on to top spot in a December table barely impacted by only 19 friendlies towards the end of a year in which 1,082 international “A” matches have been played – an all-time high since the ranking’s 1993 inception.

World champion France remained in second place ahead of Brazil in third, the positions they held in December 2018. The make-up of the year-end top five has changed, with England climbing one place o end the year in fourth and Uruguay moving up to fifth on the back of a two-spot rise. Argentina (9th) and Colombia (10th) are also in the top 10 at the expense of Switzerland (12th) and Denmark (16th), who slipped four and six places, respectively, over the course of the year.

The ranking’s mover of the year was Qatar. The 2022 World Cup hosts gained 138 points over the course of a year in which it won the AFC Asian Cup and made a strong start to the Asian Zone World Cup qualifiers. Besides accumulating the biggest points haul, Qatar also jumped a year-high 38 places, followed closely by Algeria (up 32 ranks) and Japan (up 22 ranks).

Given the teams who made the most progress in 2019, it was no surprise to find that the regional composition of the top 50 has changed, with Europe’s dominance diminished. UEFA has lost three places in the top 50 compared to the end of 2018, and now has 28 teams, whereas Concacaf (4), the AFC (4) and CAF (4) have all gained one spot apiece.

But despite all the changes, the year ended on a quiet note, with only the most modest of movements due to the scarcity of fixtures since the ranking’s November edition. Eight teams – Bahrain (99th), Bolivia (75th), Korea Republic (40th), Lesotho (139th), the Solomon Islands (141st), South Africa (71st), St Kitts and Nevis (139th) and Suriname (141st) – moved a single rung up the ladder.

As the following table shows, the top 10 movers of 2019 came from four confederations, namely the AFC (Qatar, Japan, Iraq), CAF (Algeria, Nigeria, Madagascar), Concacaf (Mexico, Haiti), and UEFA (Italy, Kosovo).

The next rankings will be published on Feb. 20.

Click here to view the entire ranking. 

 

Rank 2018-2019 World ranking Team Points end of 2018 Points end of 2019 Points won
1 55 Qatar 1258 1396 138
2 35 Algeria 1347 1482 135
3 28 Japan 1414 1503 89
4 11 Mexico 1540 1621 81
5 70 Iraq 1271 1344 73
6 13 Italy 1539 1607 68
7 31 Nigeria 1427 1493 66
8 86 Haiti 1219 1285 66
9 115 Kosovo 1113 1174 61
10 91 Madagascar 1209 1267 58

Note: the Mover of the Year is determined on the basis of the improvement in total points since the end of the previous year, i.e.: Improvement = PEnd of current year – PEnd of previous year

Front Row Soccer editor Michael Lewis has covered 13 World Cups (eight men, five women), seven Olympics and 25 MLS Cups. He has written about New York City FC, New York Cosmos, the New York Red Bulls and both U.S. national teams for Newsday and has penned a soccer history column for the Guardian.com. Lewis, who has been honored by the Press Club of Long Island and National Soccer Coaches Association of America, is the former editor of BigAppleSoccer.com. He has written seven books about the beautiful game and has published ALIVE AND KICKING The incredible but true story of the Rochester Lancers. It is available at Amazon.com.