Celtic are the only Scottish club to feature in Football Ranked’s latest top 50 of teams outside Europe’s five biggest leagues.

The Hoops sit 43rd with 1,541 Elo points, with Rangers absent from the top 50.

The scope of the list matters. It excludes clubs from the top divisions in England, Spain, Germany, Italy and France, while including sides from beyond Europe.

Stay on top of all the Celtic news on our homepage.

Top clubs by Elo outside the top 5 leagues – weekly update

🥇 🇵🇹 Sporting CP — 1,777 Elo
🥈 🇵🇹 Benfica — 1,751
🥉 🇸🇦 Al-Hilal — 1,739
4️⃣ 🇳🇴 Bodo/Glimt — 1,722
5️⃣ 🇧🇪 Club Brugge — 1,710
6️⃣ 🇵🇹 FC Porto — 1,704
7️⃣ 🇳🇱 PSV Eindhoven — 1,692
8️⃣ 🇧🇪 Union St. Gilloise — 1,681
9️⃣ 🇬🇷 Olympiakos — 1,664
🔟 🇷🇺 Zenit — 1,646
…
5️⃣0️⃣ 🇸🇦 Al-Ittihad — 1,524

By league
5️⃣ 🇳🇱 Eredivisie, 🇸🇦 Saudi Pro League
4️⃣ 🇬🇷 Super League Greece, 🇵🇹 Primeira Liga, 🇷🇺 Russian Premier League, 🇹🇷 Süper Lig
2️⃣ 🇧🇪 Belgian Pro League, 🇳🇴 Eliteserien, 🇨🇿 Czech First League, 🇩🇰 Danish Superliga, 🇧🇷 Brasileirão, 🇦🇪 UAE Pro League, 🇮🇱 Israeli Premier League, 🇭🇷 HNL
1️⃣ 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Championship, 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 Scottish Premiership, 🇭🇺 NB I, 🇷🇸 Serbian SuperLiga, 🇨🇾 Cypriot First Division, 🇺🇦 Ukrainian Premier League, 🇨🇭 Swiss Super League, 🇯🇵 J1 League

In since last week
🇯🇵 Kashima
🇭🇷 Hajduk Split

Out since last week
🇦🇹 Red Bull Salzburg
🇵🇱 Lech Poznan

By confederation
🌍 4️⃣0️⃣ UEFA
🌏 8️⃣ AFC
🌎 2️⃣ CONMEBOL

Austria and Poland no longer have a club in the top 50, while Japan enters with Kashima.

📊 For more stats, league sims and European competitions → https://t.co/gqmsS2NbKB

— Football Ranked (@footballrankedx) October 19, 2026

These are independent Elo ratings, separate from UEFA’s club coefficients. Celtic’s position should therefore be read within that particular ranking, rather than as a place among the world’s top 50 clubs.

But there is an obvious point of interest: Scotland has just one representative, and it is the champions.

The ranking arrives after Celtic produced their most convincing domestic display of the campaign, putting seven past Hearts at Celtic Park.

There was pace, purpose and a ruthless edge to the performance. After some uneven displays, it offered a reminder of what this team can produce when everything clicks.

Rangers were in action the night before, as they travelled to Tayside. They could only manage a draw against Steven Pressley’s Dundee, giving Celtic a bit of breathing room at the top of the table after Sunday’s result.

Maintaining that standard for Martin O’Neill’s will matter far more than any independent rating, but Celtic’s inclusion provides another talking point after a weekend when the Hoops did plenty of talking on the pitch.