YORK City Knights have continued their recruitment with the signing of London Broncos centre Jacob Ogden on a two-year deal.

Ogden made eight appearances for London last year, including the Broncos' 50-22 win at home to York in the Beftred Championship.

The Northampton-born back is a product of London's academy system and has previously had spells on loan at London Skolars, Coventry Bears and Sheffield Eagles.

Ogden also has past international experience, having scored two tries from as many matches for Jamaica.

The 23-year-old will be in the Jamaica squad which faces England Knights at Castleford tonight and will be hoping to represent his nation at the World Cup next year.

Speaking about the deal, which was aided by the club's Squad Builder Fund, Knights head coach James Ford said: “Jacob is a very strong and athletic player who has a good level of drive to continue progressing his game.

"We’re all very keen to work with him to help him progress his game and become a very dangerous centre.”

Ogden himself added: “I’m really looking forward to it.

"I’ve played against York a few times before and they’ve always got a lot of fans there supporting the team.

“I went to meet Fordy and he showed me around the facilities there and they’re great.

"I’m looking forward to getting stuck in and playing here for the next two years.

“Fordy is a massive reason for signing. He rang me up and had a conversation on the phone and straightaway I was really interested in coming and having a look around.

“The facilities are great, the training ground is brilliant and I really enjoyed looking around, he really sold it to me."

Ogden has a somewhat unusual route into rugby league, having been brought up outside the heartlands and beginning in the sport's rival code.

He said: “I was born in Northampton, played rugby union until I was 16 and then I went to a development squad called the Midlands Hurricanes.

“I played two years there, based at Loughborough College, and then I got picked up at London when I was seventeen.

"I played my last two years of academy rugby there and then went into the first team.”

Ogden becomes the second player to be signed by York from London Broncos, who will move from a full-time to a part-time set-up next year.

He follows hooker Sam Davis in signing for the Knights.

“Luckily, Sam and I have been playing together since we were 15 and he came through the same Midlands development squad that I did," Ogden revealed.

"We went to London at the same time and I’ve been living with Sam for the last two years.

“We’ve known each other for a long time and been through a lot together so we’ve got a great relationship and it’s making it a little bit easier that Sam is coming up as well.”

Ogden has aforementioned international ambitions and he hopes that a strong season with the Knights will see him catapulted into international contention at the sport's showpiece event in 2022.

“The World Cup is something I’ve definitely got my eye on," he said.

"When I’m training and playing, it’s always in the back of my mind that I’ve got to perform to get into that World Cup squad.

“That’s a big thing for me. I’ve got to keep my eye on my goals and hopefully I’ll get there.”

The centre becomes the 12th player signed by York for 2022, following on from new recruits Davis, Jamie Ellis, Joe Brown and Liam Harris.

Matty Marsh, Jack Teanby, Will Jubb, Marcus Stock, AJ Towse, Myles Harrison and Toby Warren are also in Ford's squad.

At centre, Ogden appears set to fill the void left by three-quarter Ryan Atkins who retired at the end of last season.