Northampton Town have beaten off strong competition from a number of clubs to sign Leeds United striker Leon Constantine on a free transfer.

6ft 2in, 30 year old Constantine was born in Hackney and played for Edgware Town before joining Millwall in September 2000. He had loan spells with Leyton Orient and Partick Thistle, before moving to Brentford on a free transfer in August 2002. In August 2003 he joined Southend United, initially on non-contract terms, signing a permanent deal the following month.

After scoring at a rate of one every other game for Southend, he moved to Peterborough United in May 2004. In October 2004, he joined Torquay United on loan and in December 2004 made the move permanent for a club record fee of £75,000. Leon moved to Port Vale in November 2005, initially on loan, where he became a regular goalscorer.

In the 2006-2007 season he broke a record, becoming the only Port Vale player to score more than 17 goals before Christmas. He finished the 2006-2007 season with 26 goals in all competitions for Port Vale (and 38 in all in 18 months for the club) and after being linked to a number of League One clubs in the summer of 2007 he agreed a move to Leeds United on a 2 year contract.

He scored on his first appearance for United, although a broken arm restricted his appearances for the Elland Road side.

He had a loan spell at Oldham Athletic in March where he scored twice in seven starts.

Throughout his career, Constantine has scored 81 goals in 199 starts and a further 46 substitute appearances.

Having worn squad number 10 at Elland Road last season, he will wear number 8 at Sixfields.

"He's a centre forward with a physical presence and a proven goalscoring record at this level," said boss Stuart Gray.

"Leon knows Bayo from their time at Torquay together, that does help but the most important thing is for them to produce on the pitch. Hopefully they have got that chemistry between them and they will hit the ground running for us.

"Leon was on my summer wish list and I think we have perhaps benefited from Dennis Wise going to Newcastle. Gary McAllister has come in wanting to sign his own players and that has given us the chance to bring in a player who I think is a quality centre forward.

"Full credit to Leon, he could have sat on his contract at Leeds but he has got a great attitude, he is hungry to play football and he wants to get his career kick started again. His goals to games ratio is very good and hopefully he can produce that for us.

"There were a lot of clubs in for him and a lot of credit has to go to the Chairman, he has worked very hard to do this deal and I'm delighted to have added another quality player to the squad."