World Cup 2022 race: Ranking the fastest emerging football nations right now

#4 Montenegro

Stefan Jovetic is the star of the Montenegrin national team

Confederation – UEFA

Current FIFA ranking – 46

The Montenegrin national team is one of the most recent international teams in the world, having only come into existence following the restoration of Montenegrin independence from Serbia in 2006, and joined FIFA and UEFA a year later in 2007.

In the last 11 years, they have made tremendous progress and achieved an all-time high of being ranked 16th in the world in 2011, just four years on from their 199th place in 2007.

The Brave Falcons narrowly lost out on qualification for the 2012 EURO, losing out to the Czech Republic in the playoffs, while also falling out in the last matches for qualification for Russia 2018, and at this rate, it is only a matter of time before they participate at a major international tournament.

They have world-renowned players such as Stefan Savic and Stefan Jovetic among others who are leading their assault on international football.

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#3 Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland v Belarus - UEFA EURO 2020 Qualifier

Confederation – UEFA

Current FIFA ranking - 36

Once upon a time, Ireland was represented by a single national team, but all that changed with their dissolution into two separate countries following the secession of the Irish Free State (now known as the Republic of Ireland).

The Green and White Army performed creditably in the 1980’s, making an appearance at the 1982 World Cup (in which they got to the quarter-finals and made Norman Whiteside the youngest player till date to start a World Cup game) as well as the 1986 edition four years later.

They however failed to match those performances and since the 1990s, Northern Ireland has been largely in the shadows of the Republic of Ireland, as their neighbors got to perform in major tournaments, and gave the game global superstars such as Roy Keane, Robbie Keane and John O’Shea.

They set an unwanted record of being the first European nation to go ten international matches without a goal between 2003 and 2004 (a run which has since been worsened by San Marino who went 20 matches without an international goal between 2008 and 2012).

As recently as September 2012, Northern Ireland was ranked 129 in the world, as they struggled to get positive results on the field. That has however begun to change in recent years.

Qualification for EURO 2016 was achieved which was their first appearance at the European continental tournament (as well as their first participation at a major football tournament since the 1986 World Cup). They performed creditably well, progressing to the second round where they narrowly lost to Wales curtsey an own goal.

They continued their impressive string of performances in the 2018 World Cup qualifiers, finishing second in their group, before losing out to Switzerland in the play-offs due to a controversial penalty decision.

All these helped them achieve an all-time high of being ranked 20 in the world in September 2017, and even though they has been a downturn in results since then (they were relegated from their Nations League group), it takes nothing away from the impressiveness of their performances in the last four years.