He got off to a winning start to life at Bafana Bafana with a win over Mali, and now South Africa's first FIFA ranking under Molefi Ntseki has been revealed…
Goals from Dean Furman and Themba Zwane secured a Nelson Mandela Challenge win for Ntseki on his debut as head coach of the national team after he was appointed as Stuart Baxter's successor, though he will still be disappointed that friendlies with Zambia and then Madagascar were cancelled the month before.
It meant that the win over Mali was the only game that Bafana could pick up any ranking points in since the last release in September, and South Africa have now consequently fallen another place into 72nd in the world.
It's now two places dropped since being 70th place following their Africa Cup of Nations performance, though Bafana do still remain in 13th place in Africa sat in between Burkina Faso and the Cape Verde Islands.
Ntseki's side do have a chance to get on the rise once again next month with his first two competitive fixtures against Ghana and South Sudan in their AFCON 2021 qualifiers, and he will be eager to continue his good start to life with the senior national team by picking up a couple more wins – and some FIFA ranking points along with them.
South Sudan, meanwhile, were the biggest movers of the month alongside Nicaragua as they both leapt 11 places up to 162nd and 137th respectively, while Mauritius suffered the biggest drop as they fell 12 places to 173rd.
