A football belonging to an Aberdeen club and used in a Scottish club game has been discovered more than 1,000 miles away, washed up on a beach in Norway.

Banks O' Dee Football Club under-19s thought they had lost the mitre ball when it was kicked over a fence and into the River Dee during one of their league matches.

So managers from the amateur team were understandably shocked when they received an email saying the ball – which had the name of the club printed on it – had been found on the small Norwegian island of Vanna.

The ball was found by a local man called Johnny Mikalsen, who felt duty bound to track down the owners of the ball when he saw the name of the club scrawled in pen on the side of it.

“Hi! You properly have one of the best long distance kickers in the world," he wrote in a letter to the club.

“A friend of mine found a football with your club name on by the seaside.

“It has travelled quite a distance. We are located 1,800km (1,118 miles) north of Aberdeen, on an island called Vanna, 10km [six miles] north of Tromso, the capital of North Norway.

“The football is just a little bit dirty after such a long distance, but fully useable. See enclosed picture.”

The ball is thought to have floated down the nearby River Dee in Aberdeen, into the North Sea and on to the island.

The ball travelled down the River Dee (Getty)

Banks O' Dee’s club secretary, Tom Ewan, said that was delighted to be reunited with the ball – if a little surprised.