After spending nearly three and a half years at the top of world football, in the FIFA rankings anyway, the Devils are preparing to cede their throne to Brazil, in the next ranking to be published this Thursday. The nation (by far) leading the number of days at the top of the hierarchy will return to the top spot thanks to their success in Bolivia last night. The Auriverde, already winners of Chile last Friday, took full advantage of the Devils sharing in Ireland a few hours later, the victory of the band in Martinez this Tuesday evening against Burkina Faso not having been enough to save this first place.
The series of Devils, started on October 25, 2018 (Belgium had already occupied first place in 2015, under the direction of Marc Wilmots), will therefore stop after 1,253 days. A fall that has become inevitable for this golden generation which has not (yet?) been able to add a first international trophy to this title of “world’s first nation”. “It was to be expected that this news would fall one day”, comments our consultant Philippe Albert. “All series are made to be interrupted, it’s the law of the genre. By dint of playing against second-class opponents outside of tournaments, you end up paying for it in terms of the coefficient parameters. What’s more when you deliberately choose to do without your best players, as was the case in Ireland and against Burkina Faso. That said, if we had been told fifteen years ago that the Red Devils would stay a little over three and a half years at the top of the world rankings, we would never have believed it. I’m afraid that in five or six years, we will say to ourselves with great regret that we will have known the blessed period of the Devils. »
In numbers
1.253
It is therefore the number of days during which Belgium will have occupied the first place in the world without interruption. Only Brazil did better, twice: 2,496 days between July 1994 and April 2001 and 1,706 days between June 2002 and January 2007. Spain stopped at 1,030 days in the early 2010s.
38
Belgium will have played 38 matches as the first nation in the FIFA rankings. With a record of 28 wins, 5 draws and 5 losses (against Switzerland, England, France and Italy in the Nations League and against Italy already at Euro 2020).
2
Only two countries have been the dolphins of Belgium since October 25, 2018: France and Brazil. Two nations which made up the podium with the Devils throughout the entire period, with the exception of the September 2021 ranking in which England was in third place.
54
Brazil had not occupied the first place in the world for 54 months, or four and a half years. Since then, only European nations had occupied this position: Germany, France and, therefore, Belgium.
0
As a reminder, Belgium haven’t won any trophies with the label on their backs. Among the nations having spent more than 1000 days in the lead, it is the only nation in this case…
8
Since the introduction of the FIFA ranking in 1993, 8 nations have occupied first place: Brazil (4731 cumulative days, Spain (1960), Belgium (1407), Germany (910), Argentina ( 788), France (466), Italy (179) and the Netherlands (28).
