EXCLUSIVE — In January of 2020, 22-year-old Cameron Carter-Vickers joined Luton Town on loan from Tottenham. It was his fifth loan spell in four years, joining the team dead last in the Championship.
He didn't know it then, but that move to the basement of the English second tier would finally give Carter-Vickers the spark he was looking for to jump-start his career: real pressure.
"For me one of the points where I felt a mentality shift in me was my spell at Luton," Carter-Vickers told The Sporting News. "That was probably the first time in my career where it was clear what we were playing for, what the purpose was, and there wasn't long to do it. That was the first time where I had to get my head mentally around a goal and really attack it, and I think it helped me a lot."
At yet another new club, one staring relegation square in the face, Carter-Vickers began to turn around his sputtering young career.
MORE: USMNT falls 3-1 to Germany after numerous defensive errors blight Christian Pulisic wonder goal
Starting all but two games the rest of the way, Carter-Vickers played his part to help save Luton Town from the accursed drop, and in the process, kickstart his own career on an upwards trajectory that would reach the Champions League and World Cup.
He would push through one more loan spell at Bournemouth, reaching the Championship playoff semifinal with the Cherries, before leaving Tottenham for good, joining Scottish giants Celtic, first on loan and then permanently a year later.
That upward trajectory, which began in 24th place in the Championship table, now has Carter-Vickers not only starting every game for a club in the top European competition, but also vaulted him back into the USMNT picture. Born in Essex with American eligibility through is father, Carter-Vickers earned his first national team call-up in 2016 at just 19 years old, and would make his international debut a year later.
He would make seven international appearances over the next 12 months, but unable to break into the Tottenham first team, it all evaporated. After one more USMNT appearance off the bench in November of 2018, Carter-Vickers would not sniff a national team place for four long years.
In that time, he learned to embrace pressure as his guiding light, which would lead him back to the levels which he seemed destined for as a young player. He got a taste of the real pressure for results at Luton, where dropping points meant more danger of relegation, but it's at Celtic where he really blossomed. Why? The everyday pressure that comes with being expected to secure victory every single time he steps on the field.
"It's a club where there's always pressure on you which I think someone like me almost needs that to keep me focused and keep me playing at my highest level week-in and week out," Carter-Vickers said.
"As a player sometimes, when you're playing week-in and week out, you kinda get into a rhythm of turning up. I don't think the fans at Celtic allow that, a draw in the league is a disaster for the fans. Once you realize that, you know every game you have to be going 100 percent to win the game, and if you don't....be ready," he adds, finishing that little bit with a chuckle.
His first year at Celtic stands tall as one of his biggest accomplishments, because it felt like a milestone in his career where he'd found a home, and found a steadiness he'd not had through the flurry of repeated loan spells while with Tottenham.
"My first year at Celtic, when we won the league, we were behind Rangers until about February and it felt like we were always chasing them," Carter-Vickers said of a memorable season that he summed up as "satisfying." Why? It came with loads of pressure.
"When we eventually won the league that year, that was obviously super exciting but also a lot of relief because the pressure of beating them to win the league...but that relief only lasts for five weeks, and then you've got to win the next cup or next league."
His growth at Celtic has been immense, leading his old boss Ange Postecoglou, now ironically at Tottenham, to earmark Carter-Vickers as "the best defender in Scotland" earlier this year.
"He's been outstanding from the moment we signed him," the Celtic boss told BBC Scotland at the time. "He's a really great defender. In our back four, you need to do a lot of one-on-one defending. Physically, he's as strong as anyone.
"He's got great awareness and he's a really intelligent footballer in terms of understanding the game in the areas he needs to protect."
While it seemed over the years that Carter-Vickers had faded from U.S. national team relevance, he was now suddenly back in months before the 2022 World Cup. With an everyday starting spot at a title-winning club, and regular European appearances, he was now a viable option at a position of severe uncertainty for the USMNT.
"The camp prior to the World Cup in the summer, I didn't really expect to be called up, but when I was, I felt like I was ready to perform for the national team," Carter-Vickers said. "Looking back now, I'm glad, I think that summer camp was key to impress the coaching staff here and show them what I can do. That got me called into the World Cup squad, which was a dream."
Carter-Vickers started one game at the World Cup, playing a huge 90 minutes against Iran, securing a shutout in a 1-0 victory which sent the U.S. through to the knockout stage.
MORE: USA squad for October friendlies 2023: USMNT roster for friendly matches vs Germany, Ghana
A knee injury delayed the start of his current season, but he came on for the final 25 minutes against Germany in the 3-1 defeat in October, and helped shore things up after a quickfire double by the Europeans to begin the second half. The U.S. committed a host of defensive errors throughout the game, but after Carter-Vickers entered, they would not concede again.
"I think it's close," Carter-Vickers said after the loss regarding the USMNT's growth towards the upper echelon of global football powers. "For us one of the biggest things is belief, as a group we've got to believe that we can not just compete but win those games."
Barring injury or otherwise derailing, Carter-Vickers is essentially a lock to make each first-choice USMNT squad through the coming World Cup cycle, and is arguably a regular starter at the back moving forward. Still just 25 years old, he has a real shot at cementing himself as a key contributor in the 2026 World Cup squad.
Carter-Vickers admitted he'd like to give the Premier League another shot after it didn't work out at Tottenham, but while sincere, his response felt unconvincing on the whole. He says he's "happy at Celtic," and that seemed the more immediate and heartfelt. "If it comes, it comes, great, but if it doesn't, I'm happy where I'm at now," he says.
After years of searching, Carter-Vickers finally has true stability at both club and country, access to strong European football, and the key ingredient for his own personal recipe: everyday pressure.
