BRISTOL City have broken their club transfer record by signing of Angers SCO and Senegal striker Famara Diédhiou for a club record fee of £5.3m.

The club has eclipsed its previous transfer record of £3.25m, ironically spent on Jonathan Kodjia from the same French Ligue One club in 2015.

Diédhiou, 24, has penned a four-year contract at Ashton Gate after City beat off competition from other clubs for his signature.

Head coach Lee Johnson said: “I’m absolutely delighted. I think he’s going to be a huge player for us.

“We’ll give him the number nine shirt, which obviously comes with that history for goalscorers – and most importantly he actually wanted that shirt number.

“He fits the bill for us because he’ll complement all of our strikers perfectly. He’s powerful, he’s quick and I think he’s got the potential to get even bigger and stronger physically.

“The beauty is that now is his time to shine. He’s a goalscorer in that he gets into good areas and can score different types of goals – volleys, headers and he’s got an attitude to shoot, which is what we’re after.

“I think we can work with him and improve him, which is exciting for me because he’s a raw talent who can go as far as he wants in football.”

He added: “We’ve had stiff competition to bring him in, which is a credit to (owner) Steve Lansdown for pushing the boat out and going for the one we wanted.

“That’s important because there was interest from other big clubs – not only in the Championship but from abroad as well.

“Obviously it’s our record signing, which is amazing. Thank you to Steve, the Board and everybody involved in making the decisions, particularly how well Mark (Ashton) has done in this process because it’s never easy to bring in a player when the competition is so high.”

City’s chief executive officer Mark Ashton said: “It’s big business and hopefully he’ll be a big player for this football club.

“He’s someone we’d identified a while ago as having real potential to fill the frontman’s shoes. We’ve had Kodjia and Tammy (Abraham) who have done well for us in the last two seasons, so we were aware we needed to replace them and get goals into the team.

“Following the signing of Eros Pisano, who I think will be a really good signing for us at right-back, I’m hoping Diédhiou will give us another real boost.

“The transfer smashes our previous record and I think it’s a sign of intent that the club wants to move forward. I’d like to thank Angers for their professionalism and cooperation throughout this deal.

“From our end, it’s not just me and it’s not just Lee. There’s a group of people in regards to recruitment; analysis, PR, media and contractual who have all worked behind the scenes on this for about a month now to try to get this deal done.

“I’m delighted for everyone who has put such a shift in to doing this, but I also can’t say thank you enough to the Lansdown family for supporting the football club when we’ve asked. That needs to be recognised because this is a big transfer. I’m hoping he’ll reward that with goals.”

Diédhiou has risen through the leagues in France after starting out at ASM Belfort and then Epinal.

He has scored goals wherever he has played, notably netting 22 times in 37 appearances during a loan spell at Clermont in 2015/16 to land the Ligue 2 golden boot and Player of the Year awards, which prompted Angers to pay £1.36m for his services.

Diédhiou’s first season in Ligue 1 saw him score nine times in 36 appearances, with Angers reaching the Coupe de France final for the second time in their history.

The last player to make the switch from Angers to City was Kodjia two years ago. He went on to score 20 times in 48 appearances, with Aston Villa paying a Championship record fee of £15m to sign him 12 months later.

Diédhiou, who has scored once in six appearances for his country, will now be looking to write his own story in BS3.