Frank Casper (born 9 December 1944) is an English former professional football player, coach and manager, born in Barnsley. As a player, he made nearly 400 appearances in

the Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional association football, football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in Association football around the wor ...

as a striker for

Rotherham United Rotherham United Football Club, nicknamed The Millers, is a professional football club based in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, England, which compete in the . The club's colours were initially yellow and black, but changed to red and white around 1 ...

and

Burnley Burnley () is a town and the administrative centre of the wider Borough of Burnley in Lancashire, England, with a 2001 population of 73,021. It is north of Manchester and east of Preston, Lancashire, Preston, at the confluence of the River C ...

. He went on to coach at and then manage Burnley.

Career

Casper made his

debut against

Derby County Derby County Football Club () is a professional association football club based in Derby, Derbyshire, England. In 2022, it was announced that DCFC was acquired by Clowes Developments (UK) Ltd, a Derbyshire-based property group. Founded in 188 ...

in 1962. He transferred to Burnley in June 1967 for a fee of £30,000, which was the first significant purchase by the club since the 1959 signing of

Alex Elder Alexander Russell Elder (born 25 April 1941) is a former Northern Irish footballer, who played for Burnley and Stoke City as well as the Northern Ireland national team. He was said to play a very mature game for someone with so little experien ...

. He scored on his Burnley debut against

Coventry City Coventry City Football Club is a professional association football club based in Coventry, West Midlands, England. The team currently compete in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. The club is nicknamed t ...

, went on to score five goals in his first five games with the club, and became the club's top scorer in each of his first two seasons. With the departure first of Willie Irvine, then of Andy Lochhead, he was left without a regular forward partner. During the 1970–71 season, he was sidelined through injury for half the season and the Clarets were relegated from the top flight. Through the early to mid-1970s, Frank continued to be a major focus of the Clarets' attack and forged a successful partnership with Paul Fletcher, with the two helping the club gain promotion back to Division One in 1972–73. Casper's first team appearances were limited after an injury sustained at Leeds United in 1974, and early in 1976 he made his last first team appearance at

Norwich Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. Norwich is by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. As the seat of the See of Norwich, with ...

before retiring and joining the

Turf Moor Turf Moor is an association football stadium in Burnley, Lancashire, England, which has been the home of Burnley F.C. since 1883. This unbroken service makes Turf Moor the second-longest continuously used ground in English professional footba ...

staff as youth team coach. In all he spent around 20 years with Burnley, first as a very successful striker, then as a coach, caretaker manager in 1983, and manager from 1989 to 1991. He also had a spell as assistant manager at Bury, alongside former teammate Martin Dobson. His son

Chris Chris is a short form of various names including Christopher, Christian, Christina, Christine, and Christos. Chris is also used as a name in its own right, however it is not as common. People with the given name *Chris Abani (born 1966), Nige ...

was also a professional footballer and football manager.

References

External links

*
Stats and photo
at Sporting Heroes {{DEFAULTSORT:Casper, Frank 1944 births Living people Footballers from Barnsley English men's footballers Men's association football forwards Burnley F.C. players Rotherham United F.C. players English Football League players English football managers Burnley F.C. managers English Football League representative players Bury F.C. non-playing staff