ALEX Ramos has always looked to follow in his legendary dad’s footsteps.
Ramos’ father Tab, who featured in three World Cups, is considered one of the greatest-ever USMNT players.
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After a brief professional career, Ramos has made his mark on the game as a leading trainer and content creator.
Ramos has amassed close to three million followers on social media and has worked with leading entities such as Manchester City, Tottenham Hotspur, Puma, Gatorade, and BodyArmor.
The 29-year-old believes a viral video with Manchester City winger Jack Grealish, ‘The Art of Changing Speed,‘ highlights just how far he has come in the content space.
“It helps on a number of fronts. It adds credibility to everything that I’ve been doing and the mission that I’m on,” Ramos tells The U.S. Sun.
“I think, for me, it’s connecting the top guys with the ground floor.
“It’s connecting the Jack Grealishes with the six, seven-year-olds who want to have that love of the game and the inspiration that I grew up with.
“I want to make those guys who seem so inaccessible more accessible.”
Ramos grew up immersed in soccer thanks to his dad Tab, who became the first player to ever sign for Major League Soccer and is in the National Soccer Hall of Fame.
“From a young age, I was always in stadiums, I had access to the field,” he recalled.
“I have pictures dating back to when I was four or five years old, my dad would be walking me around the field with the other guys.
“I had always had this passion to be like my dad. I think a lot of kids grow up with that notion. That never faded for me.
“From a young age, I saw what I could become and always had those dreams and aspirations to become a professional soccer player.”
Ramos had a promising career, initially for New Jersey Soccer Academy 04 and then playing college soccer at Iona.
He then played professionally in Mexico for Pachuca after impressing on trial before signing for Club Leon.
It was then that Ramos got into content creation, and he looked to use his free time constructively.
“I saw this space start to develop where there were creators in America that were making these fun, trick shot videos and editorials,” he said.
“And I had a lot of time on my hands as a professional, especially as a young guy, you train for two hours and then you have the rest of the day to yourself which is mostly for rest and recovery.
“I had always had this passion to be like my dad. That never faded for me
Alex Ramos
“But I would stay after training for 30 minutes, maybe an hour and just put my phone on a tripod and film some fun stuff.
“I would try different challenges and that’s where my love of content creation started to develop.
“I had one video – I did a cool trick from behind the goal that I bent in – and that went viral for the time.
“And when I got this feeling that, ‘wow, people really like this and are inspired by this’, that’s what really drove me down this road of content creation.
Living and playing in Mexico did not entirely turn out how Ramos hoped it would, especially after he was in and out of the teams he was playing for.
He decided to quit the sport in his early twenties to move home and develop a business plan to ensure a long career in the sport he loved.
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“I quit because I’ve always had this feeling inside that I’ve wanted to run a business,” he said.
“As a kid even going into high school, I didn’t necessarily know what that business would be, I just knew that I wanted to do it.
“It wasn’t easy being away from home, being away from my family and my girlfriend at the time who is now my wife.
“It was tough on me and that was a factor too. It was a mix of being home sick and having a tough time and not playing a lot, I was in and out of the team.
“And it took a big toll on me mentally.”
Ramos immersed himself in coaching, serving as an assistant for the United States U20 national team camp.
He also coached multiple youth teams to the NJ State Cup Finals, winning one State Cup with a 2009 Cedar Stars team.
Ramos then combined his love of coaching and content creation to establish Alex Ramos Training, which was renamed ART Soccer Training.
“We changed Alex Ramos Training to ART Soccer Training once I started to bring in other trainers,” he said.
“I didn’t want the brand to be about me, I wanted it to be about the players and about the mission.
“By bringing in a couple of other trainers, I kept the letters and kept the branding but we call it ART Soccer Training because we want to create a more inclusive environment.”
A number of MLS clubs have approached Ramos about potential coaching roles, but he is fully focused on developing his own company.
He is now looking to take ART Soccer Training—a technical academy based in Monmouth County, New Jersey—to the next level by working with leading pros from the United States and Europe and promising youngsters.
“I’ve had about six or seven top professionals [through my doors],” Ramos says.
“And I have a ton of youth national team players that are going to be the future pros of this country.
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“A lot of girls and guys that I’ve been working with that I feel are going to make it to that next level and really make an impact on the game.
“Right now it is mostly US based but I’ve had a lot of DMs from guys who are based in Poland, England, countries around Europe that are looking to fly in.
“I didn’t have this facility as of two months ago and didn’t feel comfortable without having that home base having guys fly in and feel like I could handle the type of program that they really need.
“Now having this facility [in New Jersey] is going to allow me to do that and more.”
Ramos believes he switched careers at the right time to allow him to continue his father’s illustrious legacy in the sport.
“For me, I look back on that time as one of the best decisions I’ve made because I am so much more fulfilled seeing the reaction I get out of players when we make that breakthrough or seeing the smiles on peoples’ faces when they come in here,” he says.
“That feels better to me than actually going out playing and showing my skills.
“It feels so much better on the inside to make that impact on a day to day and make those connections with people.”