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Hearts have seen off competition from city rivals Hibs to land highly-rated Stirling Albion striker Dylan Bikey and could hand the Frenchman an immediate debut in Sunday’s clash at Celtic.

Bikey had impressed on trial at Hibs this week having already trained with St Johnstone and Dundee United.

And even though the Leith side looked favourites to land the 21-year-old, Hearts announced on Friday afternoon that they had secured the youngster.

Bikey scored nine goals in as many games with the Binos after joining from Dieppe on amateur terms last November.

Albion agreed to release the marksman from his contract on Thursday so he could pursue his full-time options and Bikey is understood to have agreed a deal with Hearts that runs until the end of the season.

Bikey said: “I am very happy. This is a new challenge for me. It’s a big club with a big stadium and it’s a Premiership team, so I’m very happy to play for Hearts.

“It’s a very big opportunity for me. This is my first time at a full-time professional club so it’s a good opportunity for me.

“I enjoyed my time at Stirling Albion. I had good moments with them and I’d like to thank them and their fans for helping me when I first came to Scotland.

“Playing in the lower leagues has been hard. But I will try every day, I will learn and it’s good for me.

“I’m very excited to play in front of thousands of Hearts fans and I hope to score goals for them, and make them happy.”

Speaking about the player, Binos manager Dave Mackay said: “We are sorry to see Dylan go but we knew when we signed him that he was always likely to move on this month.”