In the early morning of July 20 (Vietnam time), the Spanish national team won 1-0 against Argentina to step up to the 2026 World Cup championship. The only goal scored by Ferran Torres both helped La Roja reach the top of the world for the second time, and regained the No. 1 position in the FIFA rankings from Argentina.
Spain entered this year's World Cup with 2nd place in the FIFA rankings, after Argentina.
Coach Luis de la Fuente's team used to hold the No. 1 position from September 18, 2025 to January 19, 2026, before being pushed down to 2nd place in April 2026 and June 2026 – when France and Argentina respectively held the leading positions.
Currently, with 7 consecutive wins in 8 matches at the 2026 World Cup, Spain has 1,995.88 points. While Argentina has dropped 1 place, with 1,970.37 points.
Lionel Messi and his teammates only held the No. 1 position for exactly 1 month, after the period from September 2025 to April 2026, going up and down to the 2nd and 3rd positions.
Despite winning against France in the World Cup 2026 third-place match, England still holds 4th place (1,922.83 points), 1 place behind their opponent (1,948.97).
Portugal stopped in the quarterfinals and dropped 2 places – from 5th to 7th (1,787.85), while also saying goodbye to the 2026 World Cup in this phase, but Brazil and Morocco both advanced 1 place. The South American representative ranked 5th (1,804.92), the African representative ranked 6th (1,803.99).
Belgium and the Netherlands reversed positions, ranking 8th and 9th respectively, while with a strong impression shown at the 23rd World Cup, Mexico jumped 4 places to enter the Top 10 (1,754.30).
With a disappointing World Cup, the German team was knocked out of the Top 10, down to 12th place. Croatia also dropped 2 places, ranked 13th. In return, Colombia jumped to 11th place.
Switzerland, thanks to reaching the quarter-finals, has jumped 5 places from 19 to 14. But they are not the team with the strongest progress at the 2026 World Cup.
The team with this honor is Norway, with 12 places to enter the Top 20 in 19th place. Some other teams that have also improved their positions significantly are Ghana (8 places – from 73 to 65), Paraguay (7 places – from 41 to 34), Na Phi (6 places – from 60 to 54).
DRC Congo (from 46 to 41) and Egypt (from 29 to 24) both jumped 5 places. Newcomer Cabo Verde also has its 64th position (up 3 places) after an impressive World Cup debut.
In the opposite direction, the teams that lost points and dropped the most rankings were Tunisia (12 places), Jordan, Uzbekistan, Panama (both 10 places), Czech Republic (8 places), South Korea (7 places), Iraq (6 places), Türkiye, Haiti (5 places).
Positions of the remaining teams in the FIFA rankings
| 11 | Colombia | +2 | 1739.89 |
| 12 | Germany | -2 | 1726.22 |
| 13 | Croatia | -2 | 1723.05 |
| 14 | Switzerland | +5 | 1710.88 |
| 16 | USA | +1 | 1690.33 |
| 17 | Japan | +1 | 1673.68 |
| 18 | Senegal | -3 | 1653.43 |
| 19 | Norway | +12 | 1651.29 |
| 20 | Uruguay | -4 | 1634.70 |
| 22 | Iran | -2 | 1609.85 |
| 23 | Persistent | +1 | 1598.82 |
| 24 | Egypt | +5 | 1597.04 |
| 25 | Ecuador | +2 | 1592.59 |
| 27 | Turkey | -5 | 1582.54 |
| 28 | Australia | -1 | 1581.51 |
| 29 | Algeria | -1 | 1576.80 |
| 30 | Canada | 0 | 1571.34 |
| 31 | Ivory Coast | +2 | 1565.47 |
| 32 | South Korea | -7 | 1558.72 |
| 34 | Paraguay | +7 | 1542.48 |
| 37 | Sweden | +1 | 1525.58 |
| 41 | DRC Congo | +5 | 1495.48 |
| 42 | Scotland | 0 | 1491.22 |
| 44 | Panama | -10 | 1478.41 |
| 48 | Czech Republic | -8 | 1467.26 |
| 54 | South Africa | +6 | 1451.24 |
| 57 | Tunisia | -12 | 1426.58 |
| 58 | Saudi Arabia | +3 | 1425.52 |
| 59 | Qatar | -3 | 1411.06 |
| 60 | Uzbekistan | -10 | 1409.73 |
| 61 | Bosnia & Herzegovina | +3 | 1408.93 |
| 63 | Iraq | -6 | 1404.17 |
| 64 | Cabo Verde | +3 | 1402.97 |
| 65 | Ghana | +8 | 1387.00 |
| 73 | Jordan | -10 | 1350.41 |
| 82 | Curacao | 0 | 1285.64 |
| 86 | New Zealand | -1 | 1269.80 |
| 88 | Haiti | -5 | 1264.58 |
