Argentina took the top spot in the FIFA rankings before the World Cup, with the United States in 17th place

Argentina have risen to first in FIFA's men's rankings ahead of the start of the World Cup, while France have dropped two places to third. England, Portugal and Brazil are fourth, fifth and sixth, while Morocco, the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany round out the top 10. Mauricio Pochettino's USMNT have dropped one place to 17th after a 3-2 win against Senegal and a 2-1 loss against Germany, while Mexico climbed to 14th with wins against Ghana, Australia and Serbia. Canada, meanwhile, ranks 30th. Italy, at 12th, is the highest-ranked nation not participating in the World Cup, while New Zealand, at 85th, is the lowest-ranked of the participating teams. Defending world champions Argentina won friendlies against Norway and Iceland to prepare for the tournament. Meanwhile, France's warm-up matches include a loss against Ivory Coast while European champions Spain, who are second in the rankings, drew 1-1 against Iraq. The results mean that Lionel Scoloni's side, who finished first in the South American qualification category, are back at the top of the rankings for the first time since July 2025. Russia, which was barred from playing in FIFA and UEFA competitions in 2022 with military intervention in Ukraine, is in 35th place. The country has only played in friendlies in four years, which count under FIFA's ranking system. FIFA's world rankings are determined by the Elo model, which assigns a numerical score to each competition that goes up with a win and down with a loss. FIFA says it adds and subtracts points for competitions that measure a team's relative strength, importance of the competition, results and expected results. Teams for the 48-team tournament were divided into four pots based on their rankings, with pot one containing the nine best-ranked teams and the three host nations, among others. World Cup playoff qualifying teams were placed in Pot Four, with the lowest ranked teams. One country from each pot was drawn to form a group of four.