Greek club Olympiacos has been ranked as the ninth best football team in the world outside Europe's top five domestic leagues by statistics outlet Football Ranked.
Fellow Greek side AEK Athens placed 12th in the global table, while rivals PAOK and Panathinaikos finished further back in 26th and 27th position respectively.
AEK secured 12th spot following their domestic championship victory last season and their qualification for the UEFA Champions League League Phase last week. Panathinaikos sits directly behind PAOK in the standings.
Top positions in global index
Portuguese club Sporting CP led the global index in first place with an Elo rating of 1,805. Their domestic rivals Benfica took second position with a score of 1,776, while Dutch team PSV Eindhoven claimed third place with 1,766 points.
Norwegian side Bodø/Glimt placed fourth with 1,763 points, narrowly ahead of Portuguese outfit FC Porto in fifth on 1,762. Saudi Arabian club Al-Hilal achieved sixth position with a rating of 1,731, Belgian side Club Brugge took seventh with 1,730, and Turkish club Fenerbahçe occupied eighth spot with 1,698 points.
Methodology and continental context
The compilation by Football Ranked specifically evaluated teams competing outside the top five European domestic leagues. Those excluded competitions comprise the Premier League in England, La Liga in Spain, Serie A in Italy, the Bundesliga in Germany, and Ligue 1 in France.
The ranking relies on the Elo evaluation system, a mathematical formula originally developed to measure relative skill levels in chess. In football statistics, the Elo model dynamically adjusts a team's score after every match based on the result, the difficulty of the opponent, and fixture context.
Olympiacos, based in the port city of Piraeus, finished as the highest-placed Greek representative in the ranking. AEK Athens, Panathinaikos, and PAOK from Thessaloniki compete alongside Olympiacos in the Super League Greece, the country's top division.
Al-Hilal, based in Riyadh, was the only team from outside Europe to feature in the top nine of the standings, with all other leading clubs hailing from European leagues.
