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Originally Posted by Darkiller
Well, France is the only team to ever win the World Cup and the Euro Cup back-to-back, and Zidane was the marquee player each time.
That, ALONE, singles him out over any other player since these are the two most prestigious stages football can offer and Zidane has both trophees to show for.
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Zidane might have been the marquee player in '98, but that doesn't mean he deserves any major credit for it. The team got itself to the final without him doing a single thing to help (honestly, name one contribution before the final? apart from getting sent off against the Saudis?), and while his goals obviously were the main reason France beat Brazil even there the defence keeping a clean sheet was very important. The '98 win was because France got a historical defence and home-field advantage at the same time, not because Zidane was brilliant or even good. He wasn't one of that team's five most important players.
2000 I'll give you, but while Zidane was the best player there he was leading a really spectacular array of talent. Most of the players in the top 15-20 have had at least one major tournament like that. A couple have had significantly better tournaments - Platini in '84 for instance.
2006 was discussed at some length upthread, but again France was running more on its defence than its offence. Zidane's international career has come at the same time as two of the greatest pure DMs ever - Deschamps and Makelele - and a whole host of excellent defenders. Desailly and Thuram, of course, but also Blanc and Lizarazu and Gallas. 2000 was the only time when the offence was really at the same level.
Zidane's World Cup history doesn't suggest that he can carry a team to the semis/final the way Eusebio did in '66 or Maradona did in '86 or Ballack in '02 (not that Ballack's on the same level as Zidane, but he's been better at the World Cup). It suggests that if you play him with a great defensive midfielder and in front of an extraordinary defence he'll beat Brazil for you and take some nice penalties. That's nice, but it's not a very good argument for why someone should be in the top ten or twenty of all time. Zidane's club form is the argument for him. Not his international form.