SEOUL, May 29: Senegal midfielder Khalilou Fadiga has been placed under investigation in South Korea on suspicion of stealing a gold necklace, police said on Wednesday.

Police in Taegu, one of the World Cup venues in South Korea, said Fadiga was alleged to have stolen the 18-carat gold necklace, worth 300,000 won ($245), on Sunday during a visit to a jewellery store in the city with four team mates and a coach.

The store owner discovered the necklace was missing the following day, when he reported its disappearance to police.

“The theft investigation on that Senegal player is almost over now. We are not planning to arrest him since the amount is small and he is foreigner,” a detective in Taegu said.

A member of the Senegal camp, contacted by telephone at the team’s hotel in Taegu, declined to comment.

The case recalled another famous World Cup crime story in 1970, when England captain Bobby Moore was arrested in Colombia on his way to the finals in Mexico on suspicion of stealing an emerald and gold bracelet. Moore was later cleared.

Moore, the 1966 World Cup-winning captain, insisted he had been framed and was cleared of the theft with six days to go to the start of the World Cup after proving he had no pockets in his tracksuit to stash the bracelet in. Moore died of cancer in 1993, aged 51.—Reuters