Ghana moved to the 34th spot of the last FIFA/Coca-Cola ranking for 2009 to become Africa's sixth best.

The West African nation is behind Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Egypt and Algeria in that order.The four-time African champions gained 8 points, as they completed the year with 747 points.

"It’s a good sign for the national team. It would urge them to soar pass fellow World Cup bound African teams," James Biney, a sports enthusiast in the capital Accra told Goal.com.

"Ghana must strive to be in the first three before the World Cup commences."

The December ranking table generally witnessed little changes, especially at the top, as Spain were crowned Team of the Year with Brazil coming second followed by The Netherlands.

The total number of matches played in 2009 increased to 834. This figure is higher than four years ago, but much lower than the pre-FIFA World Cup years of 2001 and 1997.