Malaysia’s national football team, Harimau Malaya, has climbed to 136th place in the latest FIFA world rankings.
According to the latest update by FIFA, Malaysia now sits at 136th in the world, with the team collecting 1,086.22 points.
This marks a two-place rise from their previous position of 138th.
M’sia did not play during the international window
Interestingly, the ranking boost did not come from any recent match played by Harimau Malaya.
The national squad did not feature in the latest international window, but still managed to move up due to changes involving other teams, including India and Latvia.
While it may not be a huge jump, the rise still gives Malaysian football fans something to smile about after a rough period for the national team.
Still behind several Southeast Asian teams
Despite the improvement, Malaysia is still not the highest-ranked team in Southeast Asia.
Thailand remains the top-ranked ASEAN side at 94th in the world, followed by Vietnam at 99th and Indonesia at 118th.
The Philippines is currently just ahead of Malaysia at 135th, while Singapore sits at 148th.
In recent years, Malaysia has mostly been hovering outside the top 120, though the team had briefly reached 121st before slipping down again.
Japan remains Asia’s top team
Over in Asia, Japan continues to lead the region as the highest-ranked Asian team, sitting at 18th in the world.
Iran follows in 20th place, while South Korea is ranked 25th.
For Harimau Malaya, the latest ranking may be a small step forward, but all eyes will now be on how the team performs in upcoming fixtures as they look to climb further up the world rankings.
