India climbs five places to 101 in FIFA men's world ranking

The Indian men's football team has climbed up five places in the recent FIFA World Rankings and are now ranked 101st. Previously, there were ranked 106th in the world. This improvement comes after the national team's recent performances.

On 28th March, 2023, India lifted the Hero Tri-Nation tournament cup after defeating Myanmar and Kyrgyz Republic. It was Anirudh Thapa who scored the solitary goal against the former, while defender Sandesh Jhingan and skipper Sunil Chhetri scored against the latter.

Due to these wins, India's points tally was increased by 8.57 points, and now stands at 1200.66. The Blue Tigers are just 0.4 away from 100th placed New Zealand, and 2.08 points from 99th placed Lebanon. A good show at the Intercontinental Cup scheduled to be held in June can help India break into the top 100 of the rankings.

While this is miles away from India's best ever FIFA ranking of 94, which was achieved back in 1996, this is improvement under head coach Igor Stimac. It was Englishman Stephen Constantine who helped the national team break into the top 100 in recent years.

This bump in the FIFA ranking might be significant in the context of the upcoming 2024 AFC Asian Cup. The draw for the much-awaited tournament is slated to take place in May, where the pots will be determined based on these updated FIFA rankings.