They were considered the best African national football team after they ranked 10th in the FIFA World Rankings in April 1998, and are the first African national team in history to be ranked by FIFA in the top ten in the FIFA World Rankings and are also the only African national team to have been at the top of the FIFA World Rankings for three consecutive years, from 1997 to 1999. Internationally, they won the African Nations Cup in 1976 and have participated in the FIFA World Cup five times. Their best result came in 1986, when they were the first and the only African national team to finish top of a group at the World Cup—