Cameron Carter-Vickers has finally found a spiritual home playing in green and white.

Now former USA all-time top scorer Erik Wynalda is convinced the Celtic defender can be a star by earning his stripes in the red, white and blue of America too.

The 53-year-old has watched on from Stateside as Carter-Vickers's trajectory has been continually on the rise at Celtic.

After 45 appearances and four goals during Ange Postecoglou’s double-winning campaign, the 24-year-old earned a recall to Greg Berhalter's USA squad for the first time since 2019.

That irresistible form during his loan spell from Tottenham Hotspur led to a concerted effort for his permanent signature from the powers that be at Parkhead with the centre-back eventually joining on a four-year deal in early June.

Wynalda reckons that by planting roots in Glasgow’s east end, Carter-Vickers can propel himself into becoming a mainstay of the US national side ahead of the World Cup finals in Qatar later this year.

“I have always admired Cameron as a player,” Wynalda told The Celtic Way. “He has a real bite to his game and he is a good ball-playing defender who possesses so much ability.

“I think he is the missing piece in the USA defensive jigsaw. He is exactly what our team needs and he had a wonderful season at Celtic, capped off by winning the title and a trophy as well as regaining his spot back in the national team.

"I have championed him for a few years now. Nobody is more delighted than me to see him do so well. There was always a player in there – he just needed to find a team that suited his style of play and where he could command a regular place in the starting XI. He has that with Celtic.

“He has finally found a spiritual home and that can only be a good thing for the USA national team moving forward."

Carter-Vickers saw game-time for the US team in three of the four summer internationals – against Morocco, Grenada and El Salvador. The World Cup in Qatar kicks off in November.

Celtic Way: Wynalda, centre, at the 1994 World Cup with AmericaWynalda, centre, at the 1994 World Cup with America

Wynalda himself reached the pinnacle by playing in three successive World Cups for the USA – 1990, 1994, and 1998. He also won the 1991 Gold Cup, was named the US player of the decade for the 1990s and made the CONCACAF all-decade team too. Naturally, he was elected to the National Soccer Hall of Fame in 2004.

"I was lucky to represent the USA three times at World Cup finals and there is not an experience like it, it’s absolutely wonderful,” Wynalda said. “I’m not sure what was on Cameron's mind when he signed for Celtic but I wonder if getting back into the international setup and playing at the World Cup was on his radar.

“He has already achieved one of his goals [getting back in the US squad] because of his cracking displays for Celtic and I'm convinced that the other will follow soon enough. There is no question or doubt in my mind that Carter-Vickers can now go on and represent his country at the World Cup finals in Qatar later this year.”

That would be no mean feat for a player Wynalda says divided opinion among US fans after six loan spells away from Spurs without really making a dent in the first-team fold.

“He did not see a lot of game time at Tottenham and that is perhaps understandable as he was playing for a big English club in the self-proclaimed best league in the world,” said Wynalda. “There was a perception about him here that this was a guy who couldn't settle anywhere after so many loan spells at different clubs in England.

“It was a pretty negative view that some people had of him but he has shown by going in at Celtic and performing so well that he was just waiting for the right club to give him the platform to shine.

"He has grabbed the opportunity with both hands. It takes a tremendous depth and strength of character, an unflinching belief in your own ability, to ignore all that negativity.

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"It is that kind of character that will stand him in good stead for the tough challenges that lie ahead as both a Celtic player competing in the Champions League and an international player playing at a World Cup. He will need all that resolve which has gotten him to this point in his career so far.”

That strength of character was on show plenty of times in green and white last season – but perhaps none more memorable than when scoring the winning goal in the 2-1 Glasgow derby victory at Ibrox back in April to send the Hoops six points clear at the top of the league.

“I watched that derby game,” Wynalda recalls. “When he scored the winner I was laughing and chuckling away, especially at his goal celebrations. It was great to see him perform so well in a game of that magnitude – he really showed that day that he could succeed at the top level. It was also an important win for Celtic and turned out to be crucial in terms of the title race.”

As a result of their title win, Celtic go straight into the group stages of the Champions League. That, the former VfL Bochum forward says, will be the best possible preparation for what Carter-Vickers could face at the World Cup – a tournament often dubbed the greatest show on earth.

“Normally the World Cup takes place in the summer but Cameron will now be cramming in a Champions League group-stage campaign beforehand,” said Wynalda, who has carved out a successful career as an analyst on American television.

“There is no better preparation for it than that. It is the highest club competition European football has to offer. The schedule is a dream for him – he knows if he performs in the Champions League there is no reason he won’t be replicating that form for the USA in Qatar. It’s a win-win for both parties.”

Yet Wynalda believes arguably the biggest advantage Carter-Vickers will enjoy by pledging himself to Celtic is the prolonged exposure to the intensity, scrutiny and pressure that comes with it.

He reckons life in the Glasgow fishbowl and the incredibly huge demands placed on you as a Parkhead player far outstrips anything that the 24-year-old’s USA team-mates in the MLS will be used to.

"Just by signing for Celtic, Carter-Vickers has exposed himself to huge pressure on a daily basis,” said Wynalda, 13th in the all-time US men’s appearance list with 106 caps. “What is it they say about clubs like Celtic? They are just one loss away from a crisis? It doesn't matter the level of the opposition that they are playing, or the competition they are in, the team is expected to win. That's just the way things are at a club like Celtic.

"It is not like that in the MLS at all. We have MLS games whereby Atlanta United could play Seattle Sounders or the San Jose Earthquakes could be playing Sporting Kansas City. Now both of those games could finish 4-0 to whoever and it wouldn't even matter. There will still be parents outside the stadium with their kids yelling to their favourite player ‘Can you sign my replica jersey? We love you, man!’

"If Carter-Vickers was on the receiving end of a 4-0 defeat for Celtic then I'm sure the fans in Glasgow would not be hanging about to get their jerseys signed. That's the difference in intensity between players who play in Europe and the guys who play for MLS teams.

“I experienced it myself as a player with VfL Bochum. When we played in the Bundesliga we would train in front of 200 fans every day and if you misplaced a pass or failed to control the ball you would hear them all right. They would shout all sorts. As a player coming from the USA, I just had to get used to it.

"Carter-Vickers has committed himself to that kind of football environment for the next four years at Celtic and I am sure he will relish it and handle it all with aplomb. There are very few teams that can match what Celtic can offer Carter-Vickers at this stage in his development. Why wouldn't he want to play your football for a club of Celtic's stature? You simply don't get to play for a special club like that every day.”