Robert Earnshaw is proudly sponsored by Browns Builders Merchants

The £3.5m deal to bring in Robert Earnshaw in June 2007 smashed Derby's previous record of £3 million - the fee which snared Seth Johnson, Craig Burley, Branko Strupar and Giorgi Kinkladze.

Earnshaw made his name with Cardiff City and after more than a century of goals in South Wales he was snapped up by West Bromwich Albion for £3m in August 2004.

He was in and out of the West Brom team but still managed 11 top-flight goals in his first season, before Norwich City bagged him for £3.5 million in January 2006.

The pacy front-man netted eight times in his first 15 games for the Canaries and followed that up with a further 19 in 32 last season, despite a groin injury ruling him out for more than three months of the campaign.

Though born in Zambia, Earnshaw has scored 12 goals for Wales, where he is a team-mate of Rams teenager Lewin Nyatanga.

He holds a unique record as the only player to score hat-tricks in all four divisions of the Football League and Premier League, the FA Cup, League Cup and at international level.

Earnshaw's first Derby County goal arrived on January 26 in the FA Cup fourth-round tie at home to Preston North End.

He broke his Premier League duck in the Rams' penultimate home game of the season with a crisp finish in the defeat to Arsenal at Pride Park.

LAST UPDATED: April 29 2008.

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