***USMNT Thread***

USSF saw Edmonton games and had flashbacks to the snow bowl and figured it would be a great idea to have a game in Minneapolis in February.

 

Thank fuck.

 

Gross

 

Good Athletic article on CCV

Carter-Vickers Journey To Celtic
Kieran Devlin

Spoiler

Across eight years as USA Under-20s head coach, Tab Ramos oversaw four World Cups and multiple team cycles of many talented young footballers, but states matter-of-factly to The Athletic that “before or after, I never had another player like Cameron Carter-Vickers”.

In what way?

“What stood out for us was his aggressiveness in the air,” Ramos explains of the player he took to two of those World Cups in 2015 and 2017, referencing an attribute perhaps familiar to Celtic fans since Carter-Vickers’ transfer deadline day arrival on loan from Tottenham.

“He’s not the tallest central defender, but he was always aggressive in the air. That’s a quality you always look for. In the US, we do have big athletes but we just didn’t have someone as aggressive, welcoming every challenge and winning everything in the air. Setting the standard for what a central defender should be like.”

It was that aerial aggression that saw him successfully marshal St Johnstone’s target man Chris Kane in Celtic’s League Cup semi-final win on Saturday. It is a characteristic that some quarters may argue had been missing from a Celtic centre-back for some years before the 23-year-old arrived.

“We put Cameron on the near post for all defensive corners,” Ramos continues. “It would hit his head and go 40 yards the other way. It always went as far as if someone had cleared it with their foot. The sound that the ball made every time Cameron headed the ball, we felt pain for the ball. That’s something we remember about Cameron — someone will hit the ball hard, but he’ll head it away even harder.”

Although he is Essex born and bred, hailing from Southend-on-Sea, Carter-Vickers has had a strong affinity with the USA all his life. This is thanks to the influence of his father, American basketball player Howard Carter, who featured briefly in the NBA with the Denver Nuggets and Dallas Mavericks but spent most of his career in France, even attaining French citizenship and representing their national team.

Carter married Carter-Vickers’ mother, English primary school teacher Geraldine Vickers, after they met in Greece. Carter-Vickers grew up with his mother and grandmother in Southend — even breaking his grandmother’s wrist when she was playing football with him in the garden — with his dad visiting from Louisiana every other summer. That would alternate with Carter-Vickers heading stateside to Baton Rouge where he would play basketball with his cousins and enjoy the famed Louisianan seafood.

Carter-Vickers’ close relationship with his mother was the foundation upon which he built his career. Chris Ramsey is the former head of development at Tottenham who brought Carter-Vickers to the club as an under-10. He describes the “very strong bond with his mum” to The Athletic. “She was always there for him,” says Ramsey. “She was there supporting him every step of the way, which helped him have a very steady personality, you knew what you’re getting with him. He was a very honest character.”

As a teenager, Carter-Vickers would win trophies at basketball, dabble in rugby and represent Essex at the shot put. But it was in football that he had the most talent and greatest interest. In his very early years, he played as a striker for Catholic United, a Sunday team affiliated with his Catholic primary school Our Lady of Lourdes, but quickly dropped back to central defence when he joined Tottenham.

“Ever since I signed him, he was always a whole-hearted, committed young guy,” Ramsey says. “He was always one of the more stout boys when he was younger. He fought to get himself into physical shape, which allowed him to reach the level that he is at.

“The fact that he’s managed to stay in the game at the level he’s at now goes to show that determination he had as a 10-year-old continues. A lot of people looked at him and thought he was a little stout kid who couldn’t get around. He was a whisper from getting released at 10, but at Tottenham, we tried to show patience. We took a gamble on keeping him since he was a very good player and somebody who was easily taught.”

Carter-Vickers soon began developing rapidly and was so advanced he once started in an under-18s game just after his 15th birthday. “At that age, I was one of the biggest, strongest and quickest, so I always had that over other players,” Carter-Vickers told Tottenham’s website in 2016.

Ramsey says: “We had a lot of good players. He was able to handle it physically, which was his biggest strength, especially with his calm nature. He’s always made good decisions on and off the ball, and nothing flustered him. Very calm, very technically gifted without being flashy. He was the dream yout-team player at that point, always focused.”

Ramsey believes that, although he developed physically quickly, Carter-Vickers was not necessarily a prodigy. He reached his level through graft, humility and a willingness to learn. “He was always prepared to go the extra mile,” Ramsey explains. “But there was always that question of, ‘Is he going to be 6ft 4in?’.”

“But he’s always punched well above his physical height. He was just a pleasure to teach and would listen to what was being told to him.”

Consistently fast-tracked through the academy, and frequently named captain with the under-21s, he made his senior debut at 18 under Mauricio Pochettino in a 5-0 win over Gillingham in the League Cup in 2016. But since then, Carter-Vickers’ club career arc has been more erratic.

With six Championship loans before his move to Celtic, one more loan spell than his total of five competitive appearances for Tottenham’s senior team, you would be forgiven for thinking that his career might be stuck in purgatory.

But dig a little deeper and what is revealed is that each loan attracted more and more enthusiastic plaudits. He impressed with growing composure and dominance at Sheffield United, Ipswich Town, Swansea City, Stoke City and Luton Town between 2017 and 2020. He was quietly improving with each stint away from north London, even if that never became excelling to the point of re-entering the first-team conversation at Tottenham.

He joined Bournemouth last season, and following Jonathan Woodgate’s arrival as manager, he played every minute, as captain Steve Cook’s partner, helping Bournemouth reach the promotion play-offs. With Scott Parker replacing Woodgate at Bournemouth this summer, and Parker’s insistence on bringing in Gary Cahill as a defensive mainstay in their promotion push, it was felt there was no need to bring Carter-Vickers back to the south coast this summer, despite the high regard with which he is held.

That is where Celtic came in…

Just as important to Carter-Vickers’ story is his USA connection. He starred for Tottenham’s under-18s in Florida’s 2014 IMG Cup when they played against the USA’s under-17s. His physicality and composure impressed the opposition coaches. It was around this time that former USA international Brad Friedel, then of Tottenham, alerted America’s set-up that Carter-Vickers was eligible to play for them. They subsequently made contact with the centre-back partly through the Friedel.

Carter-Vickers did not need much persuading to represent his father’s nation. In US Soccer’s Rising documentary, a video series on the USMNT’s hottest prospects that included (current) RB Leipzig’s Tyler Adams and Manchester City’s Zack Steffen, Carter-Vickers’ dad says: “Cameron told me he wanted to represent the United States because he wanted to feel connected to his American family.”


Ramos recalls their first meeting: “He was always very respectful, very professional. Cameron liked basketball, he liked American culture, he was open to the whole idea. We were excited to have him from a personality standpoint, he was a great addition.”

Carter-Vickers was selected for the USA’s under-18s squad to compete in the Vaclav Jezek international youth tournament in the Czech Republic in the summer of 2014. He featured in every game as the US took the title, and represented the USA at every age level since, including as the youngest representative of the squad at the 2015 Under-20 World Cup in New Zealand when he was just 17. He played every minute on the way to the quarter-finals, where USA were eliminated by Serbia on penalties, with Carter-Vickers one of four US players to miss in the shootout.

It was not just in the air where Carter-Vickers stood out. Corroborating Ramsey’s comments, Ramos cites Carter-Vickers’ sheer strength and his exuding calmness: “Cameron was always strong, he uses his body so well.

“His calm demeanour on the ball, and in general, in dangerous situations at the back. Especially in big games when you’re playing France or some of the more athletic national teams, he helped us with that so much. It all helped the other boys come along, and his calmness transferred to the rest of the team.”

Carter-Vickers captained the USA Under-20s for the first time in October 2016 and saw him “wearing the US jersey with pride”.

“But it was also the type of person that he was, the leader that he was,” adds Ramos. “Cameron, and I’m sure he does it at Celtic as well, always puts the team first. He’ll do whatever it takes for the team to win. For the national team, it’s a little bit easier because everyone loves to be there. The way he carries himself, because he’s such a good person, and because where was brought up, I thought it would be a little bit more special for him to be captain against England.”

In 2016, the English FA made enquiries about whether Carter-Vickers might switch allegiances, to which the US promptly responded by fast-tracking him into their senior set-up. Less than a month after his captaincy against England, he received his first call-up to the senior squad, but it was not until November 2017 when he made his international debut, as a substitute in a 1-1 draw with Portugal.

Post-match, he said, “It is every young player’s dream to represent their country,” phrasing that reflects the strength of his affinity with his father’s homeland. That pride can also be seen in the match ball he was handed afterwards being signed by his team-mate and displayed in a glass case in his home.

But, as with his Tottenham career, things have stalled at international level. Carter-Vickers has not represented the national team since 2019 when he played 18 minutes of a 1-0 friendly defeat to Jamaica.

Players ahead of him in the pecking order include Bayern Munich’s Chris Richards (on loan at Hoffenheim), Atlanta United’s Miles Robinson, Nashville’s Walker Zimmerman, and former Celtic target Mark McKenzie of Genk. It might be difficult for him to re-enter the call-up conversation in the short-term, with USMNT head coach Gregg Berhalter having a set defence in mind, at least for the 2022 World Cup qualifiers.

Ramos, as a self-professed Carter-Vickers fan, believes that if he maintains his Celtic form then a return to the national team is not beyond the realms of possibility in time for Qatar 2022. “It just takes a little bit of patience,” Ramos says. “The important part is always to focus on your club. If you do well for your club then the rewards will come. He’s competitive enough to be competing for a senior national team spot right now.”

Carter-Vickers had been on a scouting shortlist for some time before Ange Postecoglou’s arrival as manager at Celtic this summer. Bournemouth were not interested in making his stay permanent but Newcastle were keen on Carter-Vickers during the transfer window. However, their interest never advanced beyond tentative. After initially rejecting Celtic’s loan-to-buy proposal for Carter-Vickers in the hope of attracting a permanent transfer, Tottenham called Celtic at the 11th hour on deadline day and acquiesced.

It was as much of a surprise for the player as for many fans. “I didn’t really hear about anything until later, it all happened fairly quickly,” Carter-Vickers told Celtic TV in the days following. “I was just sitting at home kind of relaxing and not knowing what was going to happen, and then I got the call and had to rush to Tottenham’s training ground to get it all signed off.”

Carter-Vickers scored a deflected effort on his debut against Ross County and was named man of the match for his poise in possession and aggression off of it. He also scored a lovely, cushioned volley in a 3-1 win over Hibernian in October, but more importantly has impressed with his defensive fundamentals and some elegant line-breaking passing. After Carl Starfelt’s teething problems following his arrival from Rubin Kazan, the pair had begun to develop a decent partnership before the Swede’s injury last month.

The Premiership’s player of the month for October, Filipe Jota, is understandably attracting all the plaudits at the moment and stirring all the discussion over if and when Celtic will push the button on their £6.5 million option to buy with Benfica. But that is a question that will need answering with Carter-Vickers and Tottenham too. He turns 24 on New Years’ Eve and is beginning to approach his peak years. After half a decade of loans, it might be time to find a more settled home. Celtic and Carter-Vickers will have to think deeply about whether they would benefit from one another in the long term.

“Cameron is a great person to have at camp, always smiling, always with the right attitude,” Ramos concludes. “He was one of my favourite players to coach because of his demeanour. He brought a lot to the table, he made the team better, on the field and off it. I hope he’s good for Celtic, and I hope Celtic are good for him.”

“Players are more transient than they were in the past, but he could do a lot worse than be at Celtic,” Ramsey adds. “He’s reached a high level and I hope he’s enjoying it.”

It is not certain that either Celtic or Carter-Vickers hope to make the stay permanent, but so far, they have been a good fit. There is plenty of time before a decision needs to be made, and just like Carter-Vickers’ attitude on the pitch, everyone is remaining calm.

(Top photos: Getty Images/Design: Sam Richardson)