Pele is/was

[thehammer]

Could you please tell me which tense I should choose?

1- Pele is/was the greatest footballer ever to play/have played the game.

2- Sourav Ganguly is/was an International cricketer who played cricket for India from 1995 to 2007. (He is still alive and has retired from the game.)

 

[jutfrank]

In biographical sentences like this, using the past tense was when referring to someone can make it sound like they are dead. That's not a problem if they are actually dead, of course. If someone isn't dead, it's customary (and respectful) to talk about them in the present tense. You can say, for example, Sourav Ganguly is a retired international cricketer ... to make it clear that he's still alive. If someone is dead, you can still talk about them in the present tense, but it suggests that they are in a sense permanently present with us in a way that historical figures stay with us forever.

 

[thehammer]

In biographical sentences like this, using the past tense was when referring to someone can make it sound like they are dead. That's not a problem if they are actually dead, of course. If someone isn't dead, it's customary (and respectful) to talk about them in the present tense. You can say, for example, Sourav Ganguly is a retired international cricketer ... to make it clear that he's still alive. If someone is dead, you can still talk about them in the present tense, but it suggests that they are in a sense permanently present with us in a way that historical figures stay with us forever.

Thank you. In the first sentence can I use both 'to play' and 'to have played'?