Spain drops from No. 1 in World Cup team rankings after Cape Verde shock

Spain’s reign at the top of the World Cup power rankings is over, and the team that ended it wasn’t France, Argentina, or Brazil. It was Cape Verde.

A 0-0 draw on June 15 against a nation ranked somewhere around 64th to 67th in the world was enough to knock Spain off the No. 1 perch it had occupied since roughly September 2025. The result sent ripples through prediction markets, where traders had staked millions on what they assumed would be a routine Spanish victory.

How a 40-year-old goalkeeper rewrote the script

Cape Verde’s defense turned in one of the tournament’s most memorable performances. Their 40-year-old goalkeeper was the star, keeping Spain’s attack completely neutralized for 90 minutes.

Multiple power rankings that had placed Spain at No. 1 among the 48 World Cup teams reshuffled their lists in the aftermath. The team that won Euro 2024 and had looked like the tournament favorite suddenly looked vulnerable.

Polymarket traders felt the pain (and the profit)

One trader lost nearly $1 million on bets that had Spain winning the match. On the other side of that trade, another Polymarket participant reportedly flipped $427,000 into over $4.7 million by betting against Spain. That’s roughly an 11x return on a single match result.

The broader crypto market didn’t flinch. Bitcoin didn’t move on the result, and no major tokens showed correlation with the upset. No specific cryptocurrency tokens or protocols were linked directly to the FIFA ranking developments.

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