Southgate’s FIFA dream shattered as eight shock countries embarrass underachieving England

The latest FIFA rankings have been revealed and England are high. But Norway and Sweden have still come closer than Gareth Southgate to achieving his dream.

England have surged one place up the FIFA rankings above Brazil and into fourth after finishing as runners-up to Spain – up five spots to third – in the European Championship final.

The numbers are essentially meaningless, with Belgium in sixth, the Netherlands in seventh and Germany apparently only the 13th-best footballing nation in the world currently, marginally better than the United States (16th) after their Copa America humiliation.

They have always been meaningless but incredibly fun. The lowest FIFA ranking in England’s entire existence came in the build-up to what was until recently their most fondly remembered tournament in modern history, when Terry Venables dragged a nation ranked 27th, below Morocco, Tunisia, the Ivory Coast and Bulgaria, to the Euro ’96 semi-finals.

By comparison, England’s highest FIFA ranking of third was first achieved in the aftermath of Euro 2012, which was not a particularly successful summer in any sense.

England matched that ranking of third twice under Southgate, first in September 2021 after an excellent European Championship, and again in November 2023 on the back of eight wins in nine qualifying and friendly matches, including two victories over Italy.

They then immediately drew 1-1 with North Macedonia through an equalising own goal, before which Southgate outlined one of his objectives as England manager:

“Am I driven by being ranked number one? Yes, because ultimately you achieve that through consistency and you’ve got to play well in the tournaments as well because the ranking points are higher in the tournaments. Also, it sets behaviours every day on the training pitch, off the training pitch.

“With the games at the weekend, we might be ranked third in the world at the minute, but we’re two places off where we need to be so we can’t waste games. If you’re going to be the top-ranked team, there’s no room for sloppiness or casualness. If we’re going to be a top team then the level of performance has got to be spot on every time.”

England were ranked 12th when he took over and he leaves them in fourth. Mission accomplished. You’re still thinking about the trophies, aren’t you?

Their highest ranking ever being third is a notable thing in itself. Two previous World Cup winners – England and Uruguay – have never been ranked first, while two countries which have never won the World Cup – Belgium and the Netherlands – have. England never being among the two theoretical best footballing nations at any stage since 1992 sounds ludicrous but is also probably entirely fair.

But it also means that some surprising nations have at least matched England, if not surpassed them, in terms of historic FIFA rankings. By our count there are eight who have been ranked second or third who you might not entirely expect.