Jake Dane Forster-Caskey (born 25 April 1994) is an English professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who plays as a

central midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

for club

Stevenage Stevenage ( ) is a large town and borough in Hertfordshire, England, about north of London. Stevenage is east of junctions 7 and 8 of the A1(M), between Letchworth Garden City to the north and Welwyn Garden City to the south. In 1946, Stevena ...

. He is the son of former professional player Darren Caskey and is the

stepson A stepchild is the offspring of one's spouse, but not one's own offspring, either biologically or through adoption. Stepchildren can come into a family in a variety of ways. A stepchild may be the child of one's spouse from a previous relationshi ...

of the former striker

Nicky Forster Nicholas Michael Forster (born 8 September 1973) is a former professional footballer who was most recently the manager of Staines Town. Forster has also been player-manager at Brentford and manager of Dover Athletic. Football career Early y ...

. Forster-Caskey has represented England at under-16, under-17, under-18 and under-21 level.

Club career

Brighton & Hove Albion

Forster-Caskey joined Brighton's youth team in 2007. On 30 April 2010, he was offered a scholarship deal with

Brighton & Hove Albion Brighton & Hove Albion Football Club (), commonly referred to simply as Brighton, is an English professional football club based in the city of Brighton and Hove. They compete in the Premier League, the top tier of the English football league ...

. It was later revealed that Forster-Caskey rejected interest from

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...

clubs

Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...

and

Aston Villa Aston Villa Football Club is a professional football club based in Aston, Birmingham, England. The club competes in the , the top tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1874, they have played at their home ground, Villa Park ...

before signing with Brighton. The following day, Forster-Caskey was named as an unused substitute during the 0–0 draw away to

Milton Keynes Dons Milton Keynes Dons Football Club (), usually abbreviated to MK Dons, is a professional association football club based in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England. The team competes in , the third tier of the English football league system. The ...

. After a man-of-the-match performance during the Sussex Senior Cup final, whilst scoring twice during a 4–0 victory over

Bognor Regis Town Bognor Regis Town Football Club is an English football club based in Bognor Regis, West Sussex. Nicknamed 'The Rocks',the club is an FA Chartered Standard Community club affiliated to the Sussex County Football Association. They currently compet ...

, Forster-Caskey was once again named as a substitute for Brighton's final game of the 2009–10 season against

Yeovil Town Yeovil Town may refer to: * Yeovil Town F.C., an English football team based in Yeovil, Somerset * Yeovil Town L.F.C. Bridgwater United Women's Football Club are an English women's association football club based in Bridgwater, Somerset who wer ...

. During the match, he became the youngest player to feature in the Brighton first team when he made his debut as a substitute in the 76th minute. Forster-Caskey made his second substitute appearance for Brighton during the 3–0 defeat to

Stoke City Stoke City Football Club is a professional football club based in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England, which competes in the . Founded as Stoke Ramblers in 1863, it changed its name to Stoke in 1878 and then to Stoke City in 1925 after Stoke ...

in the 5th round of the

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...

on 19 February 2011. He made his full first-team debut, and scored his first Brighton goal, during the Seagulls' 3–0 win over

Southampton Southampton () is a port city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Po ...

on 2 January 2012. He scored the opening goal for Brighton, and was named Man of the Match. In his next game, Forster-Caskey again scored and received Man of the Match in an

tie with

Wrexham Wrexham ( ; cy, Wrecsam; ) is a city and the administrative centre of Wrexham County Borough in Wales. It is located between the Welsh mountains and the lower Dee Valley, near the border with Cheshire in England. Historically in the count ...

. In all, Forster-Caskey made 6 appearances during the 2011–12 season, scoring 2 goals. On 21 June 2012, Forster-Caskey signed a new deal, keeping him at the club until 2015.

Oxford United (loan)

In July 2012, Forster-Caskey signed a six-month loan deal with

League Two The English Football League Two (often referred to as League Two for short or Sky Bet League Two for sponsorship purposes, and known as the Football League Two from 2004 until 2016) is the third and lowest division of the English Football Lea ...

club

Oxford United Oxford United Football Club is a professional football club in the city of Oxford, England. The team plays in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. The chairman is Grant Ferguson, the manager is Karl Robinson and t ...

. He scored on his debut, a 20-yard left-footed strike, in a 2–0 win over

Bristol Rovers Bristol Rovers Football Club are a professional football club in Bristol, England. They compete in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. They play home matches at the Memorial Stadium in Horfield, they have been c ...

. He scored his second goal on 8 September, in a 4–2 defeat at home to

Exeter City Exeter City Football Club is a professional association football club based in Exeter, Devon, England. The team play in , the third tier of the English football league system. Known as "the Grecians", the origin of their nickname is subject to ...

. His third and final goal for Oxford came against

Wimbledon Wimbledon most often refers to: * Wimbledon, London, a district of southwest London * Wimbledon Championships, the oldest tennis tournament in the world and one of the four Grand Slam championships Wimbledon may also refer to: Places London * ...

, a 20-yard free kick into the top corner. In total he made 16 league appearances for Oxford before his loan spell concluded on 1 January 2013.

Milton Keynes Dons (loan)

On 22 September 2015, Forster-Caskey joined

Championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this system ...

side

on an initial five-week emergency loan deal. On 26 September 2015 he made his debut for the club in the 1–3 home defeat to

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 1884 ...

. On 8 January 2016, Forster-Caskey rejoined the club on loan for the remainder of the 2015–16 season. On 13 February 2016, he scored his first goal for the club, scoring direct from a free-kick in a 0–1 away win against

Rotherham United (loan)

He joined

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 ...

on 20 July 2016 on a season-long loan deal. The deal was mutually terminated by Rotherham and parent club Brighton on 5 January 2017, after he had made seven appearances for the Millers.

Charlton Athletic

On 5 January 2017, Forster-Caskey joined

Charlton Athletic Charlton Athletic Football Club is an English professional football club based in Charlton, south-east London, which compete in . Their home ground is The Valley, where the club have played since 1919. They have also played at The Mount in C ...

, signing a -year contract. He was out of the squad for most of the 2018–19 season with an anterior cruciate knee ligament injury. He was offered a new contract by Charlton at the end of the 2018–19 season. He signed a new one-year contract in June 2019. On 5 July 2021, Forster-Caskey signed a new one-year deal with the club ahead of the 2021–22 season.

Stevenage

On 3 January 2023, Forster-Caskey signed for League Two club

International career

Forster-Caskey has represented the England under-16s, England under-17s, England under-18s and England under-20s national sides. He was announced as a member of the squad to feature in the annual Nordic under-17s tournament, commencing during August 2010. Forster-Caskey captained the England side as they recorded a 5–0 success over

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

in the first game of the tournament where he also scored his first international goal. He was also involved in the FA International Tournament, where he started in a 4–0 win over Australia, before substitute appearances in the 2–2 draw against

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

and a 3–1 victory against

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

. During April 2011, Forster-Caskey was announced in the 18-man squad to represent England at the 2011 UEFA European Under-17 Football Championship in Serbia, commencing on 3 May. He made three appearances in the tournament for England before they were defeated 1–0 by

Holland Holland is a geographical regionG. Geerts & H. Heestermans, 1981, ''Groot Woordenboek der Nederlandse Taal. Deel I'', Van Dale Lexicografie, Utrecht, p 1105 and former province on the western coast of the Netherlands. From the 10th to the 16th c ...

in the semi-final. Forster-Caskey was also selected to represent England under-17s at the

2011 FIFA U-17 World Cup The 2011 FIFA U-17 World Cup was the fourteenth tournament of the FIFA U-17 World Cup, and the eleventh played since the change in age limits from under 16s to Under 17s in 1991. It was held in Mexico with games being played amongst various venues ...

in Mexico. England won their group and reached the quarter-finals, where they lost 3–2 to Germany. During October 2011, Forster-Caskey was selected for the England under-18 national side for a friendly against Slovakia, where he played 45 minutes before being substituted for Jordan Lussey at half-time. Forster-Caskey was named in the initial 35-man

squad In military terminology, a squad is among the smallest of military organizations and is led by a non-commissioned officer. NATO and US doctrine define a squad as an organization "larger than a team, but smaller than a section." while US Army do ...

for the 2013 Fifa Under 20 World Cup on 17 May 2013 by manager

Peter Taylor Peter Taylor may refer to: Arts * Peter Taylor (writer) (1917–1994), American author, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction * Peter Taylor (film editor) (1922–1997), English film editor, winner of an Academy Award for Film Editing Politi ...

, but failed to make the final 21-man squad selected on 28 May. During May 2014, Jake and fellow Brighton teammate Solomon March were called up to the under-21 squad for the U21 qualifier versus

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

and the

2014 Toulon Tournament The 2014 Toulon Tournament was the 42nd edition of the Toulon Tournament. The competition took place between 21 May and 1 June 2014 mostly in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region of South Eastern France. Brazil successfully defended their title, ...

. Jake made his debut for the U21s coming on as a late substitute in the 3–1 victory against Wales.

Personal life

Until February 2011, Forster-Caskey was simply known as Jake Caskey before altering his surname to Forster-Caskey in homage to his

stepfather A stepfather or stepdad is a non-biological male parent married to one's preexisting parent. A stepfather-in-law is a stepfather of one's spouse. Children from his spouse's previous unions are known as his stepchildren. Culture Though less com ...

. In a brief explanation, Forster-Caskey stated "I did it out of respect for my stepdad – because he has been a great role model and parent to me. I have lived with him for the last ten years and he has been a huge influence on me."

Career statistics

Honours

Charlton Athletic *

EFL League One play-offs The EFL League One play-offs are a series of play-off matches contested by the association football teams finishing from third to sixth in the EFL League One table and are part of the English Football League play-offs. , the play-offs comprise tw ...

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

Individual * Charlton Athletic Player of the Year:

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

References

External links

Jake Forster-Caskey profile
at the official Brighton & Hove Albion F.C. website
Jake Forster-Caskey profile
at the official

Football Association The Football Association (also known as The FA) is the governing body of association football in England and the Crown Dependencies of Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man. Formed in 1863, it is the oldest football association in the world an ...

website * {{DEFAULTSORT:Forster-Caskey, Jake 1994 births Living people Footballers from Southend-on-Sea English men's footballers Men's association football midfielders England men's youth international footballers England men's under-21 international footballers Brighton & Hove Albion F.C. players Oxford United F.C. players Milton Keynes Dons F.C. players Rotherham United F.C. players Charlton Athletic F.C. players Stevenage F.C. players English Football League players