The other thing is that Zidane rarely dove. Neither did young Ale. Look how many times in that video someone slides in on a tackle and clips his boots, or catches his shin, and he just keeps going, spinning, leaping, sidestepping his way around every obstacle, all while keeping control. Every time anyone slides in on Messi or C.Ronaldo, they immediately go to ground, even if they are hardly touched. They'd rather get the free kick than the advantage. It's sad really.
Besides that, watch Zidane constantly have 3-4 players converge on him when he gets the ball, and somehow he manages to escape the box that immediately surrounds him, and then proceeds to escape the next. Messi is only good at taking on one defender at a time, yes he can do this with 3 or 4 in succession with his pace, and C.Ronaldo is a genius with open space, but Zidane could dribble circles around 3-4 defenders at once, the amount of times he made people stumble, or fall, or slide into tackles while he's going the other way, it was ridiculous. He'd draw half a side to him in the centre of the pitch and then all of sudden escape and play it out to the open man in acres of space. And all this when the referees did not call matches so blatantly in favour of attack.
Football refereeing has progressively advance to favouring attackers more and more since around 2000. The most pathetic dives from minimal contact are rewarded now, none of the comparatively harsh tackles common in the 80s and 90s are allowed anymore. Players aren't rewarded for staying on their feet through tackles like they were then.
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