The countdown ends where many people would have started it. Diego Armando Maradona, the little genius from Villa Fiorito in Buenos Aires, is the greatest midfielder on our list and, for plenty of people, the greatest footballer of all.
His talent did not look like it came from this world. His feet did things that no computer could calculate, and at his peak his dribbling looked beyond what a human body should manage.
The 1986 World Cup
Maradona won the 1986 World Cup almost by himself. He scored 5 goals and set up 5 more in the tournament. Against England he scored the Goal of the Century, dribbling past 6 players in 10 seconds, still rated by many as the best individual goal the game has seen.
Naples
At club level he did something arguably harder. He took Napoli from Serie A's bottom half to their first league title, and the city came close to treating him as a saint.
Other honours came later. FIFA named him Player of the Century alongside Pelé, the highest individual honour the game hands out. His left foot, meanwhile, produced moments that went beyond sport and into something close to art.
He was flawed. He was controversial, nearly always. On a football pitch he did things no other player has repeated: the Goal of the Century, the 1986 World Cup and Napoli's first Scudetto. That is the case for number 1.
Thirty days in midfield
That ends Greatest Midfielders. Over the past 30 days we have counted down the best midfielders in football history, from Paul Scholes' passing to Maradona's genius, and the list kept making one point: midfield is where most of football's magic happens.
Who is your number one midfielder?
