World Cup 1994: Tab Ramos' face exploded thanks to Leonardo's elbow 29 years ago today!

The memory has stuck with me for a lifetime and may have prevented an American soccer star from reaching his full potential

Twenty-nine years ago today, I was in the living room of my childhood home, the same house my parents continue to live in, watching the 1994 FIFA World Cup round of 16. It was the fourth of July, America’s day of freedom, and the United States men’s national team was playing on home soil against Brazil, a three-time World Cup winner.   

Just weeks before on June 18, I stumbled onto the USA’s first group stage game against Switzerland. Having watched a two-hour block of World Championship Wrestling on our local Fox affiliate, I changed the channel to find something I had never seen before, a professional soccer match.   

Sure, I had played youth soccer a few years earlier, hating the amount of running we were forced to do, but I’d never actually seen a game – amateur or professional. I was mesmerised by the sights, sounds, and action taking place at the Pontiac Silverdome. I was also blown away by the natural grass turf inside the same arena that played host to WrestleMania III. 

Days later, I talked my mom into buying me the all-new FIFA World Cup video game for my Sega Game Gear (remember those?). I played that game for years until Ryan Solomon borrowed it and never gave it back.   

By the time the USA kicked off with Brazil on July 4 in Stanford in the round of 16, I was fully invested in soccer. I couldn’t get enough of this new thing I’d just learned about, the World Cup. There was no professional league in the States at the time and coverage of leagues in Europe wasn’t great.   

Having just four television channels at my parents' house meant I was about a year away from watching the Premier League for the first time when we finally got a mini satellite dish. Growing up in the fly-over zone of the States (the area tourists fly over to get from one coast to the other) made it difficult to discover sports outside of baseball, basketball, and American football.  

The game kicked off around 2:30 PM central time following the end of the early match between the Netherlands and Ireland. It was billed as the USA playing on the 4th of July, the birth of the nation’s freedom. Many hoped it would be a memorable day, with the Americans being victorious. How many Americans tuned in to the game expecting the USA to be the top soccer team in the world, knowing nothing about the sport? I’m sure plenty of Americans believed the USA were the best, because gosh darn it, they were taught the USA was the greatest in school.   

The match was scrappy and in the 43rd minute, one of my lasting soccer memories occurred, Leonardo’s elbow shattered Tab Ramos’ face. As the first half neared its end, Ramos and Leonardo battled for the ball on the edge of the pitch. As the two tussled, Ramos went behind Leonardo, who threw a vicious backwards elbow. It was on the level of elbows thrown by UFC fighters. The point of Leonard’s elbow connected perfectly with Ramos’ face, as the American midfielder was slightly hunched over, trying to get around the Brazilian.   

To say it shattered Ramos’ face is a bit of an understatement. Ramos would spend three-and-a-half months in the hospital following the incident. The intentional elbow by the Brazilian produced a skull fracture, and it stopped Ramos’ career dead in its tracks. Ramos couldn’t move his arms and legs, as he laid on the stadium’s turf. The injury was so severe, some claim Ramos could have died on the pitch. 

In an interview with the New York Times toward the end of 1994, Ramos said: “That was the reason I had to stay in the hospital because there was blood in my brain from the blow, and if it hadn't cleared up, they would have had to go in and operate.” 

Days later, Leonardo visited Ramos in the hospital, crying over the injury he had inflicted on the American. While it is true, he was upset over Ramos’ injury, it is more likely Leonardo was crying over his FIFA ban. Leonardo was banned from playing in the rest of the World Cup due to his aggressive and intentional elbow to Ramos’ face.  

Watching the incident live was incredible. Never had I seen anything like it in sports. My father happened to walk into the room in time to view slow-motion replays of Leonardo flooring Ramos. His reaction was more of confusion about what the objective of soccer was rather than the vicious elbow laid into Ramos’ skull.  

 

Ramos was a midfielder for Spain’s Real Betis at the time of the injury. He had worked his way up through the college soccer ranks at NC State, earning a place on the USA 1990 World Cup team. In 1991, he joined Spain’s UE Figueres before moving to Betis in 1992 for $400,000. Back then, who would have thought an American player would earn a transfer worth so much money?  

Once Ramos recovered from the skull fracture, he returned to Spain only to find his place in the Real Betis team to be gone. The club had signed additional foreign players in the offseason following promotion to the Primera. Spain’s top flight only allowed three non-Spanish players to be on the field at once.  

Ramos had no place in the team and in January 1995, signed with Major League Soccer. The new American league wouldn’t kick off for another year-plus. In the meantime, MLS was securing talent for its debut and Ramos was one of the early marquee signings.   

But Ramos wasn’t just one of the first players signed to compete in MLS. He was THE FIRST player signed by the start-up league. His quality and influence on American soccer at the time are largely forgotten, especially with more vocal ex-USMNT players from the same period working in the media or giving far more interviews on podcasts.   

Days after signing with MLS, Ramos was loaned to Tigres UNAL in Mexico for a year. He later joined the New York/New Jersey MetroStars of MLS, playing until 2002. At the time of Ramos’ retirement, he was considered the most accomplished American soccer player of all time. He has been eclipsed since then by a few players.   

Ramos immigrated to the USA as an 11-year-old in 1978. Just four years later at the age of 15, he made his USMNT U20 debut. He was Freddy Adu before Freddy Adu in a soccer program that was desperate to promote boys into a world of men.  

In the early 1980s, the USA was a soccer backwater and little would change until the mid-1990s. Ramos was one of America’s first soccer exports to thrive in Europe. He was the USA’s golden child, its future. As a high school senior at New Jersey’s St. Benedict's Prep, he scored 57 goals. In 1983, Parade Magazine named him the high school player of the year.   

Remarkably, in 1991, World Soccer Magazine named the American midfielder as one of the top 100 players in the world. It was an incredible achievement for an American player of the time. He played in three World Cups, having returned to the national team for the 1998 tournament following the skull fracture four years earlier. In total, Ramos played 81 times for the USMNT, scoring eight goals.   

The elbow, the skull fracture, and the recovery derailed Ramos’ career. Sure, he returned to play in Mexico and MLS, but the latter was a nascent league, with a lack of world-class talent.  

The midfielder could have achieved far more in the game. Following the 1994 World Cup, many USMNT players found club opportunities in Europe or South America. Ramos couldn’t play, he was stuck in a hospital bed and then spent the next few months trying to regain his fitness. Some clubs were likely turned off from signing him after such a freak injury. Had the Leonardo elbow now occurred, who knows how Ramos’ career would have ended?