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#1 Diego Maradona (Mexico 1986)
During the 1986 World Cup in Mexico, Diego Maradona gave undoubtedly the best individual performance that the competition has ever seen.
The Napoli player set the benchmark for those to come after him, which even Messi has not been able to live up to for the national side.
Over the course of the tournament, he scored five goals and created five more, though it was really only in the knockout stage that he exploded into life.
Indeed, his performance in the quarter-final against England has gone down in history as one of the iconic individual displays. It showed the incredible dichotomy of Maradona’s character, as he opened the scoring with his famous ‘Hand of God’ goal then got the second with the most incredible solo run that saw him go by innumerable challenges before scoring from a tight angle.
He also proved decisive in the semi-final against Belgium, against whom he netted twice. It was during this match that one of the most iconic football images was shot, with a bunch of opposing defenders looking positively terrified as the Argentine No.10 sizes them up.
Maradona then led Argentina to a 3-2 success over West Germany in the final in front of over 114,000 fans, leaving a legacy for the national team that even the great Messi has thus far struggled to match.
