According to the FIFA rankings released on Thursday, Belgium's Red Devils finished first worldwide in 2019, maintaining their first place obtained in 2018.
At the top of the ranking since September 2018, this is the twelfth time in a row that Belgium figures among the top teams, and the third time that the Belgians are the world’s Number 1 team at the end of the year.
The nation that ends the year in first place in the FIFA rankings receives the title of Team of the Year. This is the third time that Belgium is granted this honour (after 2015 and 2018). So that now the Devils tie with Germany and rank higher than Argentina (2x) and France (1x). Only Brazil (12x) and Spain (6x) have received the award more times than the Belgians.
The next objective for the Devils will be the Euro 2020, where they will face Russia (FIFA 38), Denmark (FIFA 16) and Finland (FIFA 58).
Qatar, Asia’s champion, was recognized as the team to have made the “best progress of the year." The future host of the Mondial 2022 gained 38 places in a year, and now ranks FIFA 55.
It is to be noted that 1,082 international "A" games were played in 2019, which is the highest total since FIFA rankings began in 1993.
The next FIFA rankings will be released on 20 February 2020.
The Brussels Times
