Georgian police have arrested a man after he tried to sell a bronze soccer ball stolen from the gravestone of one of Georgia's most popular players.

A police spokesman said on Friday that Shukri Aroshidze was detained after he tried to sell the 67-kg ball to a scrap metal yard for 40 lari ($20).

Aroshidze admitted that he had stolen the ball from the grave of former Soviet and Dinamo Tbilisi striker Mikhail Meskhi.

Meskhi, who died in 1991, was a member of the Soviet Union team that won the first European championship in 1960 and also played in the 1962 World Cup in Chile.