He took a team that won the treble and had played in 2 straight Champions League Finals, spent an additional 200 million euros on players and led that team to two semi-final ass-kickings at the hands of Real Madrid and Barcelona as well as whatever that was against Atletico.

Uhh... yes, it was. He inherited a team that won the treble - absolutely hammering Barcelona on the way to the UCL title - a Barca team that was the remnants of what he put together run by his old right-hand man.

I'm not going to say anything more because at the end of the day, the argument is impossible

Nope. “Zidane is better than Ronaldo/Messi” is arguable at best. You can also argue that Ronaldo (the real one) was better than Zidane.

A spokesman for ESPN says they’ve been flooded with calls from white people overjoyed to see a black man rooting for them.