The Saint Lucia men’s national football team, Piton Boyz, enjoyed the biggest move in the North, Central America, and the Caribbean (Concacaf) region, regarding points added during the September window.
That’s when FIFA released the latest Coca-Cola Men’s World Ranking on Wednesday.
The world governing body issued its previous national team ranking in July.
One hundred eighty-four international matches were played in September, involving teams from all six confederations.
Playing in Grenada, Stern John’s men beat Curaçao 2-1 and Grenada 2-1 in the Concacaf Nations League.
Saint Lucia was one of six teams to earn two wins in the window, along with the Dominican Republic, Belize, Barbados, St Kitts & Nevis, and El Salvador.
But victory over Curaçao, in particular, helped bump the Piton Boyz, who added 18.29 ratings points, the most significant boost in the region.
Saint Lucia also moved to 164th in the world, with the national team moving up six places. Only Brunei Darussalam (183rd) and Samoa (185th) had bigger leaps, moving up seven spots each.
164 marks a six-year peak for Saint Lucia, whose highest position was 108th in May 2003 but whose nadir was 192nd out of 210 teams in March 2010.
Since 2018, the national team has been as low as 177th five times, and as high as 166th in April 2024.
Curaçao, with several professionals coming in from the Dutch league, remains in the world’s top 100.
Continued success against Saint Martin at home in October would see Saint Lucia taking another jump in the standings.
As an overseas department of France, Saint Martin does not have a ranking, but they sustained losses to Grenada and Curaçao in September.
Saint Lucia will play the Frenchmen twice at the Daren Sammy Cricket Ground next month.
Looking down the table, Anguilla remains 209th despite getting a slight bump. The British overseas territory beat the Turks & Caicos Islands 2-0, their first win since 2010.
Just above them, the USVI switched places with the British Virgin Islands, the BVI dropping to 208 and the USVI moving up to 207, thanks to their draw with the Bahamas.
San Marino (210th) remains rooted to the bottom of the pile despite their first victory in over 20 years.
La Serenissima’s previous triumph had been a 1-0 success against Liechtenstein in April 2004. After a 140-game winless run, they repeated the feat this past 5 September against the same opposition and with the same scoreline.
Argentina remains at the top of the rankings despite losing 2-1 away to Colombia.
