Sports
Enyimba, Rivers Make Top 500 Club World Ranking
In the IFFHS Men’s Club World Ranking for the period January 1, 2021 to December 31, 2025, Rivers United are placed 278th with 361.75 points, while Enyimba occupy 421st position with 280 points.
Both Nigeria Premier Football League clubs are the only Nigerian sides included in the global top 500.
The ranking reflects performances in domestic and continental competitions over the five-year period under review.
Rivers United have won the NPFL title once in that span, claiming the 2021/22 crown and finishing third in 2022/23.
They have also featured regularly in continental competitions, reaching the CAF Confederation Cup quarter-finals in successive seasons in 2022/23 and 2023/24, and qualifying for the group stage of the 2025/26 CAF Champions League.
Enyimba, nine-time Nigerian champions and two-time CAF Champions League winners, secured the domestic league title in 2023 and finished third on two occasions within the review period.
They have made multiple appearances in CAF competitions, including the CAF Confederation Cup group stage in 2024/25.
However, the Aba-based club are enduring a turbulent domestic campaign and are currently battling relegation, sitting just one point above the drop zone.
Rivers United are presently top of the NPFL table with two games in hand and remain Nigeria’s most consistent side on the continent in recent seasons.
They are ranked 24th in CAF’s five-year club coefficient, with Enyimba placed 35th, making them the only Nigerian teams in that ranking.
Globally, the IFFHS ranking is led by Real Madrid, followed by Manchester City and CR Flamengo, with Paris Saint-Germain and Bayern Munich completing the top five.
The top 10 is dominated by European and South American clubs, reflecting the weight of results in UEFA and CONMEBOL competitions.
The inclusion of Rivers United and Enyimba in the top 500 comes at a time when the NPFL has slipped in the IFFHS league standings, dropping 15 places to 91st in the world with 171.75 points in the 2025 assessment.
The league ranking, which factors in continental and global results, underscores the challenges facing Nigerian club football despite the individual progress of its leading sides.
The IFFHS, founded in 1984 and based in Zurich, compiles its rankings using a points system that evaluates clubs’ performances in domestic leagues, continental tournaments and global competitions
A well-known football pundit in the State, Chief Christopher Okonkwo has lauded the efforts and vision of the Super Eagles Coach Eric Chelle for going from one venue of the Nigeria Domestic Nigeria Professional Football League match to the other in monitoring Nigerian players, with a view to invite some exceptional good one discovered into the main stream of the Super Eagles team.
Okonkwo, who made the commendation in an interview at the Port Harcourt Club recently, described the positive move by Coach Chelle as a good step in the right direction, noting that the practice was how its been done in the past among any contracted coach assigned to tinker the Super Eagles team.
“Truly, it has been an old tradition in the country seeing any newly engaged Coach to lead the National team, visiting some our Nigeria League venues during the league matches to spot light some good talents that could be used to beef up some grey areas in the department of Eagles team”
He, however, frowned at the current situation where our coaches had continously been over depending on the use of foreign based players during invitation of players to the National camp, thereby, relegating the domestic home based league players to the background as if they have nothing much to offer to the team.
“I can vividly recall that the likes of great players in the mode of Finidi George, Taribo West, Kanu Nwankwo, Austin Okocha, Richard Owobokiri, Emmanuel Osuigwe among others started from Nigeria football league before they graduated to play in Europe through which they later invited to Super Eagles camp to represent Nigeria”
“Besides, I’m also of the view that going to secondary school football competitive games could equally serves as a a good platform to discover budding talents that could be nurtured to become great stars in near future”, Okonkwo frankly added.
Okonkwo, therefore, prayed that any football coach to be engaged by the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) to tinker the Super Eagles should be told not to confine himself in staying in big hotel alone but to be visiting some of our local league match venues, with a view to discover some good players that can be drafted into the Super Eagles team.
“Indeed, I stand to be challenged that there some young good players in the Nigeria Professional League. If spotted and exposed, could give the some of the invited foreign based players a stiff competitive fight in securing a postion in the team”, Okonkwo emphatically stated.
Ezechukwu, one of the youngest members of the Nigerian contingent at the championship in Ghana, said her ambition was to win the 100m title in style and cap it with a new personal record.
The fresh secondary school graduate explained that she is fully focused on contributing to Team Nigeria’s medal hopes and is determined to deliver strong performances across her events.
“My main objective in Ghana is to clinch the 100m title and the 4×100m,” Ezechukwu told Tidesports source.
“Nigeria can be assured of my very best and my commitment to the Team. I would love to set a new personal best in Ghana, but anything that comes, I will take it. The spirit in the team is high, and I think we are ready to go,” she said.
Ezechukwu, who was part of Nigeria’s women’s 4x100m relay squad at the World Relays in Botswana, said the experience gained from that competition has strengthened her mindset heading into the continental championships.
She admitted that she learned valuable lessons from her previous outing, including a difficult moment during the relay where an early error affected the team’s rhythm, but said she has used the experience to improve her discipline and composure.
“The secret is just being disciplined, training hard and trusting my coach and believing in God, and the result will show,” she added.
The teenager is part of a 41-member Nigerian team comprising 24 female and 17 male athletes competing at the championships, which begin today at the University of Ghana, Legon.
Nigeria are expected to compete across multiple track and field events as they aim for a strong finish against the continent’s elite athletes.
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