One of the Football League's brightest young talents has become Derby County's ninth signing ahead of the 2008/09 season.

Stockport County striker Liam Dickinson is the man after enjoying a successful campaign in which he scored 21 goals and won promotion to League 1 with the Hatters.

Rams boss Paul Jewell has been an admirer of the talented 22-year-old for some time and is delighted to have completed the deal.

"Liam is one of the brightest talents in the Football League and we have done really well to beat off the competition and land him for Derby County," Jewell said of Dickinson, who has signed a three-year deal for a fee which could ultimately rise to £1m.

"He has all the attributes I am looking for in a centre forward - he is strong, aggressive, with pace, knows where the goal is and has a real physical presence on the pitch.

"He is also hungry and ambitious and has the desire to be successful in the Championship and wants to play and be successful even higher.

"Liam is a confident young man but at the same time is keen to learn and get better.

"It means we are building up some good competition for places with the strikers and that is exactly what I am looking for.

"I'm not done yet by any means. There are still a number of other targets I am chasing and still want yet another striker before we kick off."

Dickinson is the latest promotion-winner to join Derby this summer and leaves Stockport having fired the crucial third goal in their League 2 play-off final success against Rochdale.

It marks a meteoric rise for the tall front-man who was playing non-league football for Woodley Sports as late as December 2005.

Stockport took him on trial before bringing him in permanently for just £2,000 at the end of 2005.

They were rewarded with seven goals from 12 starts in the final few months of his debut campaign, and in 2006/07 Dickinson added another seven in 13 starts and 22 substitute appearances.

But in 2007/08 the six-feet four-inches front-man really came to the fore with a best-ever personal haul of 21 and a day of Wembley glory to cap it all off.

Dickinson is the fourth player to join Derby after winning promotion with his previous club, following the arrivals of Paul Green, Kris Commons and Martin Albrechtsen.

Ruben Zadkovich, Paul Connolly, Jordan Stewart and Nathan Ellington are also through the door as Jewell shapes his squad ahead of the 2008/09 promotion push.