HARTLEPOOL have completed their third summer signing with the capture of Gateshead-born defender Carl Magnay.

Having been voted Grimsby Town’s Player of the Year last season, Magnay was offered a new contract with the Mariners, who narrowly missed out on a place in the Football League as they lost the Conference Play-Off final with Bristol Rovers on penalties.

However, the 26-year-old, who is equally comfortable at full-back or centre-half, rejected Grimbsy’s offer of a new deal and instead opted to sign for Pools.

Magnay, who was on Leeds’ academy books as a youngster, boasts a colourful past as he earned a contract with Chelsea by winning the second series of the Sky One show, Football Icon, in 2007.

He did not make a senior appearance at Chelsea, although he enjoyed loan spells at MK Dons adn Northampton Town during his time in West London and earned international recognition with Northern Ireland Under-21s in 2009.

He left Chelsea after suffering a serious knee injury, and penned his first professional contract with his hometown club, Gateshead, in January 2012.

He joined Grimsby last summer after spending two-and-a-half years with the Heed, and will join up with his new Hartlepool team-mates when pre-season training begins at the end of the month.