THERE are certain misconceptions that people may have about Cameron Carter-Vickers by virtue of his imposing physical stature. He isn’t called ‘The Fridge’ because he is cool under pressure, though that is one of the attributes that has made him such a good fit for Ange Postecoglou’s Celtic.
As daunting an opponent as he may be for attackers on the field, he is softly-spoken and humble off it, and he is determined to stay grounded whatever the fame and fortune that his football career may bring him.
That’s why his first feeling when securing his four-year Celtic contract earlier this summer was one of gratitude, not only to his manager and the club for placing their faith in him and giving him a home after a nomadic career to date, but for the people who believed in him and got him to where he is.
For Carter-Vickers, that means his mum, his dad – the former NBA player Howard Carter – and his first coach at Tottenham, John McDermott.
Without their influence and support, Carter-Vickers doesn’t believe he would be the same player or the same person as he is now, and he is determined to repay their backing by making the most of the opportunity he has been given in the game.
“They are all pleased,” Carter-Vickers said.
“My mum and dad are pretty easy-going. They are happy if I am happy.
“I didn’t grow up with [my dad] but I used to see him regularly in the summer. He didn’t play football, he played basketball, but there are traits all professional athletes use and he has been able to help me with stuff like that.
“I play a little bit of basketball but I am probably a bit too short for it. He played in the NBA for a couple of years and he also played in France and Greece.
“Neither him nor my mum put any pressure on me. If I do need advice then I know he is there.
“My mum and dad have always been there for me. I’d probably say the academy coach at Tottenham, John McDermott [too].
“He’s not there anymore. But as I was coming through the youth teams at Tottenham he was the main guy there. He’s a very good coach.
“I still speak to him now and again. I think he’s involved with the FA now, so he’s busy. But we still speak now and again.
“It wasn’t just on football, he just kind of helped people grow, as a footballer and a person.
“I think if you talk to a lot of the academy boys from Tottenham I think they’ll say the same thing.”
The influence of his family - and his father in particular - didn’t only help determine his path into elite professional sport, but also which nation he has chosen to represent, with Carter-Vickers hoping to make the USA squad for the upcoming World Cup and give the country of his birth a bloody nose along the way.
Carter-Vickers once wrote a note when he joined the Tottenham academy as a youngster, kept by his grandmother, that detailed his aspirations: ‘I’d like to go to a World Cup, play in the Champions League and win the FA Cup.’ He may do two out of the three this season alone.
“I spent a lot of summers out there growing up as a kid, and I was always close to that side of my family,” he said.
“On my dad’s side I’ve got a few sisters and quite a few cousins over there, so that was why [I chose the USA] really.”
The immediate focus for Carter-Vickers though, as has been consistently relayed by various Celtic players over the course of their pre-season camp in Austria, is on day-to-day improvement. A blanket approach they hope will ultimately lead to further improvement in this Celtic team next season.
“Hopefully,” he said. “That’s the aim. We don’t want to stand still. We want to improve on our performances from last year and try in every game to do a little bit better.
“I was delighted with last year. We worked hard all season and to eventually get to the league title was a good feeling. [The medals] are at my house in a little box. I’m leaving them there for now. I haven’t decided what I’m going to do with them yet.
“We don’t set any targets in terms of what we want to achieve. It’s just about trying to get better every day, improve performances.
“For me personally, I just want to play games. So to play as many games as I did, I enjoyed it.”
That theory extends to the partnership between himself and Carl Starfelt at the heart of the Celtic defence, with the understanding between the duo growing exponentially as last season wore on.
“You can always understand each other more,” he said. “But I think if you look at the season, the more games we played together, I learned what Carl was going to do and he was the same with me.
“Defensively, that is important, it does help a lot.”
What that has meant though is that Christopher Jullien has found game-time almost impossible to come by, leading the defender to seek a path out of the club this summer.
The late collapse of a move to Schalke saw Jullien unexpectedly travel to Austria and the Czech Republic with the Celtic squad, and he is likely to play a part in the friendly against Banik Ostrava this evening with Starfelt likely to be out until the start of the season through injury.
Despite his eagerness to seek other opportunities for first-team football though, Carter-Vickers says there has been no discord in the camp as Jullien has continued to support his defensive colleagues.
“I think Chris is a great guy,” he said. “We got on well last year and we get on well now. Not just him, but all the team is pretty close. We get on well.
“We are all together on a day-to-day basis so it needs to be that way. Everybody needs to be pulling in the same direction and I think we’ve got a group that does that.”
