Zurich, April 9 (IANS): India have made a leap of 26 places to move to the 147th spot in the latest FIFA football rankings released Thursday.
The surge in rankings is a result of the first round win over Nepal in the joint qualifiers for the 2018 World Cup and 2019 Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Asian Cup.
India move up 12 spots to 24th among 46 nations in the rankings among the Asian countries.
World Cup winners Germany remained on pole position in the standings followed by runners-up Argentina.
Belgium moved above Colombia into third after their Euro 2016 qualifying wins over Cyprus and Israel last month.
Brazil jumped a spot to fifth after their impressive form under Dunga, winning 3-1 against France and 1-0 over Chile in friendly international matches.
France (11th) and Italy (13th) dropped out of the top 10 with Switzerland (ninth) and Spain (10th) entering the top 10.