Cameron Carter-Vickers insists the guidance of Ange Postecoglou can take him all the way to Qatar via the footballing hotspots of Europe.
The American is now on his way to El Salvador for the final international of the summer programme in the early hours of Wednesday morning our time.
Carter-Vickers heads to the Estadio Cuscatlan in San Salvador with his club future secured following Friday’s confirmation of a permanent £6million transfer to Celtic.
The 24-year-old is desperate to be part of his country’s World Cup assault at the end of the year and believes Postecoglou’s leadership and belief can make it happen.
Carter-Vickers was a nomad before arriving in Glasgow. Six loan spells from Spurs gave him no sense of security.
But Postecoglou changed all of that. The Aussie’s move in the last hour of last summer’s transfer window gave the centre-back his chance to settle.
CCV did enough to win two trophies, earn massive praise and also win him his place back in the USA set-up.
The defender could feel the warmth from the stands as he performed superbly for the new-look Parkhead team during their charge to the Premiership and Premier Sports Cup and, even more importantly, from the management of Postecoglou.
Now it’s on to stage two of the journey with immediate rewards and playing riches within his grasp.
Carter-Vickers is heading on to club football’s biggest stage when he joins his team-mates in the group stage of the Champions League.
Performing well amongst Europe’s elite will go a long way towards sealing his spot in the World Cup and the stopper is adamant he’s got the right man to get him there.
Carter-Vickers said: “It’s hopeful when you know the manager trusts you and he believes in you. Me and the rest of the players also believe in him.
“We believe he will take us and lead us in the right way. That was important last year and will be this season again.
“As a team, we want to build on what we did last season. Obviously, it was great to win the league last term and that is something we want to do again next year.
“And we want to test ourselves in Europe, in the Champions League we’ll be playing against some great teams and great players, so to see how we measure up will be great.”
Carter-Vickers, of course, had a taste of the continent last term when he featured in the Europa League.
Before he even left Spurs, he had taken part in a qualifier and then moved into the groups with Celtic.
It was a steep learning curve with Postecoglou’s team losing more goals than anyone during that stage of the competition but the harsh education was vital in his development.
Now it’s the biggest tournament of the lot and he said: “The Champions League will be great to play in, that’s the best competition in club football, so to be involved in that will be great.
“And talking about the World Cup, that’s something I’m trying to work towards to be in the squad, and make sure I’m there with the USA.”
Carter-Vickers collected his 10th cap for the States at the weekend when cruising through a convincing 5-0 win over Grenada.
Manager Gregg Berhalter could shuffle his pack again for the game against El Salvador as he looks to freshen up the side.
That could leave Carter-Vickers with a free run into his holiday break before the hard work starts again at Celtic’s pre-season camp in Austria at the beginning of next month.
The defender can’t wait to get back into the swing of things at Parkhead having enjoyed such a successful maiden term at the club.
Carter-Vickers was pivotal in the winning of the title and his partnership with Carl Starfelt was the rock on which the flag triumph was built with Joe Hart providing added insurance at their backs.
The former England keeper has already been on social media outlining his delight at the permanent capture of his American colleague and Carter-Vickers said: “A few of the boys messaged me, a few of them put things in the group chat.”
Carter-Vickers will soon be back amongst the group for the hard graft but, if it’s anything like last term, it’ll be smiles with sweat.
The defender has also struck up a great rapport with the supporters during his time so far at the club and can’t wait for more of the same.
Carter-Vickers told Celtic TV: “I really enjoyed last season. I enjoyed working with the manager and the group of players and, off the back of that, I knew I wanted to stay.
“Last season wasn’t just great for me, but for the team too. Turning up to all of the home games but also the away games, the support we got was magnificent. That was part of it.”
