A remarkable year of near success has seen Ghana end the year 16th in the latest Fifa ranking released on Wednesday.
The Black Stars improved one place up and the last ranking end 2010 reflected of heir exploits at the Africa Cup of Nations and the World Cup finals in South Africa.
Ghana finished the year as Africa's second best side behind Egypt after gaining 5 points to accumulate a build up of 908. Ivory Coast, Nigeria and , Algeria trail the Black Stars in that order on the continental ranking table.
World champions, Spain still leads the the overall standing followed by the Netherlands and Germany in third position.
FIFA says the results of 111 new “A” international matches have been recognised in the current edition of the FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking. In terms of points, 14 qualifying matches for continental championships in Europe, the Caribbean and Africa were of particular importance, while the remaining 97 matches were friendlies.
With a total of 785 matches taken into account so far this year, the final tally for 2010 may well exceed the 800 mark, bringing it just above the average for a World Cup year.