![Pakistan men slide to 201st in football rankings, women gain [The News]](https://footballpakistan.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Pakistan-MNT-and-WNT.jpg "Pakistan men slide to 201st in football rankings, women gain [The News]")
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan women have jumped to world No. 157 while men attained the worst-ever 201 ranking on FIFA’s latest list, revealed on Thursday.
Pakistan women defeated world No 95 Indonesia and highly ranked Kyrgyzstan in the Asian Cup qualifying round to increase their ranking on the FIFA list. Men team’s disappointing performance and slide continues as they lost three places to become world No. 201, their lowest on the list. Just nine countries — little known — are behind Pakistan men on the list.
More than 200 relevant national-team encounters have been contested around the world since the last edition of the FIFA/Coca Cola Men’s World Ranking was released, and those fixtures have made their mark on the standings.
The changes start at the top end, with Croatia climbing one place to return to the top 10 at the expense of Italy (11th, down 2). For their part, Portugal (6th, up 1) and the Netherlands (7th, down 1) have swapped places, while eighth-placed Belgium have not budged but now have Germany (9th, up 1) looming ominously behind them.
There is no movement at the summit, however. FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™ winners Argentina remain in pole position, with Spain (2nd) and France (3rd) still their closest challengers and England and Brazil continuing to round off the top five in that order.
Although both Concacaf Gold Cup finalists are upwardly mobile, champions Mexico (13th, up 4) have leapfrogged beaten finalists the United States (15th, up 1), to become the region’s best-ranked team. Meanwhile, Senegal (18th, up 1) have cemented their berth in the top 20, as have Switzerland (19th, also up 1).
Several teams have climbed five places, including Norway (now 33rd), Paraguay (43rd), North Macedonia (62nd) and Zambia (83rd), but they are eclipsed by Costa Rica (40th, up 14): this edition’s biggest climbers in terms of places. Whereas Los Ticos graced the last eight at the Gold Cup, the two losing semi-finalists at the Concacaf showpiece, Honduras (66th, up 9) and Guatemala (100th, up 6), have also made significant strides because of their fine runs.
Asia is no stranger to spectacular surges, either, with Indonesia (118th, up 5), Malaysia (125th, up 6), Hong Kong, China (147th, up 6) and Laos (185th, up 5) leading the way. Even greater advances have been recorded by Bermuda (162nd, up 6) and Grenada (167th, up 7).