The Ghana national football team has made a significant leap in the latest FIFA/Coca-Cola Men’s World Ranking update, jumping eight places from 73rd to 65th after their dramatic opening-night win over Panama at the 2026 FIFA World Cup. The team, led by Carlos Queiroz, added 33.83 ranking points to their tally and now sit on 1,380.71 points. The Black Stars had been the lowest-ranked side in Group L, but Yirenkyi’s record-breaking strike on Wednesday evening delivered three points and a near-perfect platform in the group. Ghana’s ranking has been a sore point for the four-time Africa Cup of Nations champions for the past 18 months, with the team having fallen as low as 76th during the qualifying campaign under Otto Addo. Despite the eight-place world leap, Ghana remain stuck on 14th in Africa. Should Queiroz’s side stun fourth-ranked England in Foxboro on Tuesday, the ranking points on offer would be enormous. A defeat would barely sting, as the algorithm essentially expects Ghana to lose that fixture. The same forgiving math applies to the closer against Croatia in Philadelphia. At the top of the world ranking, Argentina remain world number one, with Spain second, France third, and England fourth. Morocco hold sixth among African nations’ best-ever placings in the modern era and continue to be Africa’s flag-bearer on the global table. Ghana’s next match against England will be a crucial test for the team, with a win potentially leading to a significant rise in the rankings. The Black Stars will look to build on their momentum and cause an upset against one of the tournament favorites.