In less than three months in office, Emma Hayes has led the new Olympic champions in women’s football back to the top of the FIFA Women’s World Ranking announced today.

Just 63 days ago, the US women’s national team had fallen to fifth place in the world rankings, behind world champions Spain, France, England and Germany.

However, since taking over the reins of the four-time world champions, Hayes is undefeated in ten matches, including six wins at the Olympics. These competition victories, particularly the two victories in France against the higher-ranked Germans, have earned them over 70 points and catapulted the United States back to the top of the world rankings.

The FIFA Women’s World Rankings were introduced in June 2003 and were dominated for the next 20 years by the game’s two leading powers, the United States and Germany. Before the 2023 Women’s World Cup, these two were the only two nations to top the rankings.

The USA was ranked number one in the world for an incredible 5,715 days. Germany, who won the World Cup in 2003 and 2007, held that position for just 1,701 days. Before last summer’s World Cup, the USA had been ranked number one in the world for over six years in a row, an unbroken streak of 75 months.

After their worst performance at a Women’s World Cup last summer, the United States lost the top spot to the team that eliminated them at the tournament: Sweden. The Scandinavians held the position for 112 days before being replaced by new world champions Spain, who took the top spot for the first time in December 2023.

Spain were favourites to win the gold medal at the Paris Olympics, becoming the first reigning world champions to win a gold medal in 88 years. However, after a strong start to the Games, the Spaniards were hit by the effects of a grueling European season.

A quarter-final draw with Colombia (a match won on penalties), followed by two consecutive defeats in the semi-finals (against Brazil) and the bronze medal match (against Germany), saw them lose 79 ranking points, dropping two places behind England, who did not participate in the Olympics and who achieved virtually the same number of points.

Elsewhere in the rankings, Olympic hosts France, who went into the Games as the second-ranked team in the world, have felt the effects of a poor performance at their own Games. An eighth quarter-final defeat at a major tournament in the last 15 years cost the team 91 ranking points and saw them tumble to 10th place, their worst position, which they last held in 2009.

Ahead of them in ninth place is North Korea. The Asian country did not play a single international match between 2020 and 2023 due to the country’s self-imposed isolation during the Covid pandemic. This year it has played just four matches, the last two of which were against a Russian team still banned from FIFA competitions due to sanctions imposed as a result of its ongoing war in Ukraine.

At the other end of the table, European nation Athletics feature in the rankings for the first time after their women’s team played Namibia twice. They enter the rankings at number 187, meaning there are a new record 194 different nations on the list.