Casper "Cass" Rose (Robert Kazinsky) 2005-2006

First Regular Appearance: 9.1 (#357) Phoenix From The Flames  Sunday 16th October 2005

Last Regular Appearance: 9.29 (#385) The Precious  Sunday 30th April 2006

Duration: EP: 357 - 385  |  SE: 9.1 – 9.29

Squad Number/Position: #9 (Striker) / Chairman of Harchester United (2005-2006)

Last Seen: Lying dead on his hotel room floor having been accidentally killed by Alex, found by Eugene.

Casper was the playboy with a heart; he often came through for others, but didn’t learn in time how his practical jokes could have a serious affect. Casper’s father Terry was a big star in his playing career at Liverpool and Charlton Athletic, but with his womanising ways had little time to notice Cass's own talent even with he gaining a place in Charlton's Youth Academy. On Valentine’s Day 1994, at the age of eleven, Casper was introduced to Eugene Christie, who would become the biggest impact on his game and life. The boys’ coach, Fraser Hibbs, learned that Terry was in fact Eugene’s father, but when Gene’s mother Diane is killed in an accident, Terry leaves Eugene in a children’s home unaware of his father's identity.

It is two years before Casper sees Eugene again, and Hibbsey refuses to let him slip away once more, forcing Terry to take Eugene in or he will tell Julie Rose about Terry's illegitimate son. Terry still won’t tell Julie or Casper who Eugene is, not wanting to jeopardise his inheritance from his wife’s rich father. Casper and Eugene are an unstoppable force throughout their time in Charlton’s youth and subsequently first team. As Charlton return to the Premier League, Terry collapses and needing a transplant, has no option but to reveal Eugene’s parentage, leaving Casper with a bitter grudge against his new half-brother. When Cass learned Eugene’s girlfriend Jessica was pregnant but considering an abortion, he used it against his brother on the very day his dream club, Liverpool, were coming to watch him play. Eugene lost his deal, and girlfriend, while Cass was transferred out to Millwall, leaving the boys estranged for the next four years.

After spending two years at Roma, Cass is at a party at his lover Annabelle’s house when he meets Ashleigh, who he is immediately taken with. That same night most of the Harchester United first team is wiped out in a coach explosion, and after Ashleigh exits the party, Casper discovers she has a background in European football - and on the coaching staff of PSV Eindhoven manager Felix Hahn. Also longing to get things back on track with Eugene with a World Cup looming, Casper plots the three avenues coming together in the one place - Harchester United. Cass buys the club from Eli Knox, with funds inherited from his grandfather, but chooses to keep his identity as club owner secret.

With all of his new staff and team in place, Casper appears to be just the club’s star striker with his game, and mischievous side, doing all the talking. One of his first stunts is to get the team stranded in France when they have the season’s opening match hours away, followed by losing a bet which saw him climbing into bed with Eugene and his wife Scarlett, plus (under the guise of the owner) offering to make the Harchester player who scores the winning goal against Leeds in a Cup game £1M richer. Needless to say all ended in disaster, but Casper with his charismatic leadership quality always managed to get himself out of any trouble. For now.

While Casper may have thought himself the master of prank pulling, Eugene isn’t as successful when faking a staged hold-up, which ends with Casper being shot. Eugene is genuinely scared for Cass, despite them having not made up yet. As he recovers in hospital, Casper apologises to Eugene for the whole Jess/Liverpool debacle, and the brothers agree not to hate each other anymore. It all turns out to have been for nothing anyway as Jessica returns with the child Eugene never knew existed, while Casper who had been fighting an attraction to Scarlett, lets her go knowing he would always love his brother more.

But perhaps Casper’s biggest mistake was playing fate with Alex Dempsey’s life. Cass had learned at his father’s wake that Terry had fathered another child, but as Terry had done with Eugene, hadn't let Alex know. Instead, Casper began to contact Alex in the same anonymous way Terry had done, by handwritten letters offering meaningful advice. It was Casper who paid for Alex to receive the best treatment when he suffered a career-ending injury, and upon buying the club, appointed him as first team coach, followed by making him manager mid-season. Alex meanwhile, had been driven to total obsession with finding out who the owner was, believing it had been the same person controlling his life all along.

Casper is ready to settle down with Ashleigh, something he’s waited for all season, and while she considers an answer to his marriage proposal, he is confronted by Alex in his room where Cass knows his cover is blown. Casper takes great pleasure taunting Alex about how he would never have achieved anything in the game without his input, and in a fit of rage Alex hits Casper with one of the ink bottles he used to write him the letters. The blow is much greater than Alex anticipated, and Casper is killed, leaving Alex consumed with guilt and Eugene and Ashleigh devastated.