ZURICH, Jan 17: Argentina remained top of FIFA’s world rankings following the publication of the almost unchanged official standings on Wednesday.

With few international teams in action during the past month, the only alteration in the top 20 saw Nigeria climbing one place into 19th spot at the expense of the US.

Nigeria’s small gain came thanks to a 2-0 friendly win over Sudan played on Jan 9 as a warm-up for the African Nations Cup which gets underway on Sunday.

FIFA’s top 20 rankings (previous position in brackets):

1 (1) Argentina, 2 (2) Brazil, 3 (3) Italy, 4 (4) Spain, 5 (5) Germany, 6 (6) Czech Republic, 7 (7) France, 8 (8) Portugal, 9 (9) Netherlands, 10 (10) Croatia; 11 (11) Greece; 12 (12) England; 13 (13) Romania; 14 (14) Scotland, 15 (15) Mexico, 16 (16) Turkey, 17 (17) Colombia, 18 (18) Bulgaria, 19 (20) Nigeria, 20 (19) US.—Reuters