TEBOHO Mokoena leads fellow Bafana Bafana teammates in celebration as they. Ayanda Ndamane / Independent Newspapers
After their impressive 2025 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) qualifying campaign, Bafana Bafana has established themselves as a top 10 African football nation.
When the latest FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking was released this week, Bafana were listed at 57th in the world and 10th in Africa. This is South Africa's best ranking since February 2015 when Bafana were 56th in the world. At the previous release, Bafana were in 60th place.
The three-place jump is largely due to the impressive run in Afcon qualifiers. Since suffering defeat in the Afcon Group E opening match to Mali in January in Ivory Coast, Bafana has enjoyed a 12-game unbeaten streak. Bafana lost the Afcon semi-final to Nigeria on penalties but FIFA records penalty shoot-out outcomes as a draw.
In a dramatic finish to their Afcon campaign, Bafana won the bronze medal after they edged the Democratic Republic of Congo 6-5 on penalties after a goalless draw at the Felix Houphouet-Boigny Stadium. Afterwards, Bafana coach Hugo Broos mentioned the challenging travel itinerary the team had to cope with ahead of the bronze medal play-off.
“This was an exhausted team today, of South Africa. We were not fresh. But when you see the mentality in that group, they fight for it till the last second of the game. There were players who nearly fell from fatigue but still weren’t done,” said Broos.
Bafana reached the 12-game unbeaten mark with their recent 3-0 win over South Sudan in Cape Town. This feat topped their Afcon record of 11, set between 2011 and 2014.
The win over South Sudan crowned Bafana as Group K winners after six matches of the 2025 Afcon qualification.
The 2025 Afcon showpiece, which kicks off on December 21, 2025 and runs until January 18, 2026, will be played in six different cities in Morocco. The hosts are the favourites as Africa’s top-ranked team in 14th place. The only other African team in the world’s top 20 is Senegal.
From now until December 2025, Bafana will be focussed on the 2026 World Cup qualifiers which they kicked in November last year with a 2-1 win over Benin. After that, they lost to Rwanda, drew with Nigeria (away) and defeated Zimbabwe in June in the Free State Stadium.
The qualifiers continue next year with two fixtures in March. The final group match will be played in September 2025.
The nine group winners will secure automatic qualification to the 2026 World Cup to be co-hosted by three North American countries: Canada, Mexico, and the USA.
Perennial rivals, the Super Eagles of Nigeria, are Bafana's biggest threat but their form has taken a serious turn for the worse. As a result, their world ranking has dropped eight places to 44th.
After four World Cup qualifiers, Nigeria have failed to win a match. They have three draws and one defeat. They linger second last in the six-team Group C with three points. Rwanda, South Africa and Benin are joint log leaders, each with seven points after four matches.