Ruy Ramos

Who is Ruy Ramos?

Ruy Ramos, formerly Ruy Gonçalves Ramos Sobrinho, is a Brazilian-born football player, who became a naturalized Japanese citizen in 1989. He was one of the first foreign players in Japanese professional soccer, joining Yomiuri in 1977 at the age of 20. He was an important member of the Japanese national team during their unsuccessful 1994 World Cup qualification, eventually retiring from the game in 1998 at the age of 41.

He briefly came out of his retirement for Okinawa Kariyushi as player-come-technical advisor in 2002. However, he left the club after a row with the management at the end of the season. Then he served as technical adviser for crosstown Ryūkyū.

In March 2005, Ramos became coach of Japan national beach soccer team and took them to the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup, where they finished fourth.

In January 2006, he was named coach of his former squad Tokyo Verdy 1969, freshly relegated from J-League Division 1. After a disappointing 2006 season in Division 2, Coach Ramos stated that if his team did not win the first game of the 2007 season, he would step down as head coach. The first game was on March 4 against Thespa Kusatsu, one of the weakest teams in the league, and Tokyo won this match 5-0. His team managed to finish 2nd after all and Tokyo Verdy got promoted to division 1. After the season, Ramos resigned and became the executive director of the club.