Twelve months after being ousted from the top of the FIFA/Coca-Cola Women’s World Ranking, USA (1st, up 4) have made a triumphant return to the summit following their victorious Women’s Olympic Football Tournament 2024 campaign. The Stars and Stripes claimed their fifth Olympic gold medal in Paris, and their first since London 2012, by edging past Brazil (8th, up 1) 1-0 in the final.

England (2nd, up 1) have climbed one spot at the expense of Spain (3rd, down 2), who are now in third after seeing their bid for Olympic glory ended with defeat to Brazil in the semi-finals, which was promptly followed by another reverse at the hands of Germany (4th) in the bronze-medal match. The Germans, meanwhile, have held on to their position in the ranking, as have Japan (7th), who were beaten in the quarter-finals by USA.

No team has fallen more than France (10th, down 8), however, with Les Bleues sliding from second place to 10th following an Olympic campaign in which they toiled in Group A before succumbing to Brazil in the quarter-finals. A surprise loss to Republic of Ireland in July in the build-up to Paris 2024 also did not help, and the French now find themselves in their lowest position since September 2019.

At the other end of the table, there is a FIFA/Coca-Cola Women’s World Ranking debut for Liechtenstein (187th) after two matches against Namibia (a 1-1 draw and a 2-0 defeat), leaving the total number of teams in the ranking at 194, a new record.

Finally, six teams are currently higher in the ranking than ever before, namely Iceland (13th), Colombia (21st), Zambia (62nd), Solomon Islands (86th), Cabo Verde (130th) and Central African Republic (144th).

The next FIFA/Coca-Cola Women’s World Ranking will be published on 20 December 2024.