REGGAE boy Ricardo Fuller has become Preston's first summer signing.

The £800,000 striker has signed on the dotted line and will swap Jamaican side Tivoli Gardens for the First Division highflyers in time for the start of the new season.

The transfer swoop has made Preston one of just two Nationwide clubs to have splashed the cash this summer, with Portsmouth the other.

The exact fee for the 22-year-old international is being kept underwraps, but the new contract he has signed will keep him at Deepdale for three years.

His presence will mean North End have three strikers in the squad for the start of the new season - Richard Cresswell and David Healy the other two.

North End insist the signing - revealed first in the Preston Citizen - does not put an end to hopes of also signing Clyde Wijnhard, the former Huddersfield striker who impressed on loan towards the end of last season.

He is believed to have rejected the terms offered by North End, although negociations are expected to continue.

Fuller chose North End after being impressed with new boss Craig Brown's presence at the club.

Preston's first league game will be against Crystal Palace, Fuller's previous English club. He played there for four months in 2001 before a back injury put him out of the game for 13 months.