C’mon Hoops
His dad was a US basketball star but when Celtic sent strips for his youth team, CCV was always going to end up at Parkhead
CAMERON CARTER-VICKERS grew up wearing the hoops but he could have ended up shooting them instead.
The Celtic new Bhoy admits he’s been thrilled to see his boyhood club becoming an internet sensation after it turned out Catholic United’s original kit were Parkhead hand-me-downs.
The Essex club were gifted a set of strips by old Celts chairman Bob Kelly in the 1960s and stuck with them ever since.
Carter-Vickers wore the green and white for six years to forge a career in football. But he could have followed his dad’s path – and ended up in the NBA.
The Spurs loan ace’s American old man Howard Carter was a college star at Louisiana State University and even made the big time with Denver Nuggets and Dallas Mavericks.
Carter-Vickers stuck to the soccer instead – and he got a kick from seeing Celtic fans flooding to support his former club online.
He said: “Catholic United were my Sunday League team and I played there from the age of five to about 11, just playing every Sunday with my mates. It’s great any time a small club like that gets a bit of recognition. I wasn’t aware they got their strips from Celtic until now. It’s good that there is a connection there.”
Carter-Vickers is a USA international due to his dad but reckons he’s a footballer thanks to his gran – even if she might have regretted it.
He said: “When I was 10 or 11, I was playing with my nan in the back garden. She was in goal, I shot, she stuck her hand out to save it and ended up breaking her wrist!
“We laughed about it later though. I played a lot in the garden with my mum and nan when I was younger but not just football – sometimes we’d be throwing a ball around and playing catch, sometimes a bit of basketball as well.
“We had a basketball hoop as well as a football net and we tried all kinds of sports but we were just messing around really.
“Was basketball an option? Not really. When I went to secondary school I started to play a little bit but it was more because my friends were playing rather than me having a deep interest in the sport.”
Carter-Vickers was certainly interested in coming to Celtic when the Hoops made a late deadline dash to land the 23-yearold centre-back.
Celts boss Ange Postecouglou had his eye on the defender throughout the window, impressed by his loan spells at Stoke, Swansea and Bournemouth.
Tottenham’s £5million fee got in the way but the English window closed at 11pm on deadline day – giving Celtic an extra hour to snap up a loan with an option to buy in a year.
A chat with his old Spurs team-mate Joe Hart was enough to convince Carter-Vickers to scoot up to Scotland.
Speaking to Celtic TV, he said: “I spoke to Joe before I came up and he said the atmosphere’s unbelievable.
“He said it’s one of the best atmospheres he’s seen, so I’m looking forward to it. As soon as I heard Celtic it was something I wanted to do. It’s a massive club with a massive fan base. I’m here to win.”