The latest Fifa football rankings will make very happy reading to Kenyans because their national team Harambee Stars are one of the most improved sides in the world.
After their recent success in the 2010 World Cup/African Nations Cup qualifiers, Kenya moved up an unprecedented 23 places and now stand as the 92nd best team in the world and 24th in Africa.
From recently one of the weakest Confederation of East and Central Africa Football Associations teams, Harambee Stars have climbed up the ladder to almost the top of the Cecafa region. Only Rwanda, at No.21 in Africa, are ranked ahead of Kenya.
The rest of the Cecafa nations come behind Kenya in the order of; Uganda (26), Ethiopia (30), Sudan (32), Tanzania (34), Burundi (39) and Eritrea (42), all of who were performing better than Kenya in continental and Cecafa football in as recently as just over six months ago. Djibouti at 49th and Somalia at 51st are the other teams in the region.
Burkina Faso, Swaziland and Cape Verde are the only African countries that made bigger leaps than Kenya in the latest rankings. Burkina Faso flew a massive 47 places to perch at the 64th team in the world and 12th in Africa, while Swaziland moved 38 places to 123rd in the world and 35th in Africa. Cape Verde moved 24 places to 85th in the world and 20th in Africa.
Kenya's marked improvement comes off recent 2-0 victories each over Guinea (7th in Africa, 39th in the world) and Zimbabwe (18th in Africa and 82nd in the world) and a 0-0 draw with Zimbabwe. Kenya play Namibia in Nairobi in September and Guinea in Conakry in October to conclude the first round of the 2010 World Cup/Nations Cup qualifiers.
Victories for Harambee Stars would put them in even a better position for the seeding of the second round of the qualifiers. The second round will be of five pools headed by the five top ranked teams in the continent. Currently they are; Cameroon (13th in world), Ghana (20), Egypt (24), Nigeria (26), Cote d'Ivoire (28).
Newly-crowned European champions Spain became the sixth nation to have ever occupied the No.1 Fifa rankings position. They jumped three places to head the table on which they are followed by Italy, Germany, Brazil, The Netherlands, Argentina, Croatia, Czech Republic, Portugal and France who complete the top 10.
Cameroon (13th in the world) the top African team are notably better than Euro semi-finalists Turkey (14), former world champions England (15) and Uruguay (22) and former European champions Greece (18) and Denmark (36).
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