Nearly four decades ago, the United States wasn’t even an understudy on soccer’s international stage.

The men’s national team hadn’t been to the FIFA World Cup in 40 years, and no one expected it to go in 1990 either.

However, a former NC State soccer All-American and a bunch of other college stars jump-started the country’s efforts to make a splash in the world’s most popular sport, which is visiting North America this summer in 16 U.S., Mexican and Canadian cities.

Tab Ramos was just establishing his presence as a professional star, though he was only two years away from his spectacular Wolfpack career.

Playing alongside college stars like Tony Meola, John Harkes and Eric Wynolda, Ramos became America’s biggest name in the smallest frame. At just 5 feet, 7 inches tall and 140 pounds, his small stature belied his big energy and massive talent.

A native of Uruguay, Ramos moved with his family to New Jersey when he was 11 and found his way to NC State in 1984. Over the next four years — with time off in 1988 to play for the U.S. Olympic team at the age of 19 — Ramos and his teammates put the Wolfpack program on the map, leading all the way to the 1990 NCAA semifinals shortly after Ramos turned professional. He was named All-American three consecutive years.

He did much the same thing for the men’s national team at the 1990 World Cup in Italy, though it did not have immediate success.

“We were such novices in the 1990 World Cup,” Ramos says today from his home in New Jersey. “I was still just coming out of NC State, and we mostly had college players on the team. We were amateurs playing against the rest of the world.

“It was like if you and I and a bunch of other friends went and played in the NBA. It wasn’t a fair competition.”

Playing in Rome, the American team was humiliated by Czechoslovakia, 5-1, in its first World Cup match since the 1950 team finished a surprising fourth. It lost its second game, 1-0, to host Italy — practically a win, considering it was playing against one of the world’s strongest teams.

The Americans finished pool play with a 2-1 loss to Austria, winless but inspired. The U.S. Men’s National Team has qualified for all but one World Cup tournament since.

Ramos was on the team again in 1994, when the Cup was first held in the United States, and in ’98. With his professional career in Europe, Mexico and the U.S, he emerged as one of America’s greatest players. He was the No. 1 pick in the inaugural Major League Soccer draft, playing for his home-state team, the New York/New Jersey MetroStars.

In all, Ramos played professionally for 13 years and recorded 81 caps and eight goals for USMNT. He also returned to NC State long enough to earn a bachelor’s degree in foreign language (Spanish) and literature in 2001.

In 2005, he was elected into the National Soccer Hall of Fame and was an original member of the NC State Athletic Hall of Fame in 2012.

Now, as the wildly popular 48-team international tournament returns to North America for the first time since Ramos played on his second World Cup squad, the legendary player still has a strong voice in America’s soccer movement. He was a youth, national and professional coach for nearly 20 years after the end of his playing career but has retired to his New Jersey soccer academy and his events and travel company, and he produces a national soccer podcast called Inside American Soccer.

He’s also providing expert commentary and analysis for World Cup games in Philadelphia and Toronto for Andres Cantor’s Futbol de Primera Radio and FIFA’s television broadcasts in Europe.