TANZANIA national men’s football team, Taifa Stars, has climbed up five positions from 119 to 114 in the latest rankings released by the world’s soccer governing body, FIFA.

Taifa Stars improved by fifteen points from their previous ranking, and they now have a total of 1174 points on the table.

This positive movement follows their impressive away victory over Zambia in the recent 2026 FIFA World Cup African qualifiers.

Tanzania defeated Zambia 1-0 at the Levy Mwanawasa Stadium in Ndola, in the fourth round of African qualifiers for the 2026 FIFA World Cup early this month.

A fifth-minute strike from debutant striker Waziri Junior set the team on their way to a much-needed away victory. 

Zambia tried valiantly to find an equaliser but were denied by stout Taifa Stars defence marshalled by Ibrahim Bacca and Bakari Mwamnyeto.

The victory saw Tanzania go second on six points, three behind leaders Morocco who thrashed Congo Brazzaville 6-0 to maintain their perfect record. 

It was Taifa Stars’ second away victory of the campaign, after the earlier win over Niger.

On the global stage, Argentina retained their top position, reflecting their continued strong performance. 

France holds firm in second place, while Belgium climbed up a spot to third. England, however, slipped down to fourth swapping places with Brazil.

Portugal, Netherlands, and Spain maintained their positions in sixth, seventh, and eighth respectively. 

Croatia has overtaken Italy to secure ninth place, pushing Italy down to tenth.

Liberia's impressive ten-place rise to 142nd marks the most significant improvement, with the Lone Stars remaining unbeaten in 2024.

At the continental stage, Morocco overtook Senegal as the highest-ranked African nation and moved into 12th position overall after beating Zambia (2-1) and Congo (6-0) in their recent World Cup qualifiers, while Senegal drew 1-1 with Congo DR and beat Mauritania 1-0.

Egypt and Ivory Coast have overtaken Nigeria after the Super Eagles’ 1-1 draw with Bafana Bafana and their shock 2-1 loss to Benin.

The rest of the top 10 CAF teams nearly stayed unchanged, apart from Cameroon climbing above Mali after the latter lost 2-1 to Ghana and drew 0-0 with Madagascar.