It's all happening in Italy at the moment after they failed to qualify for the 2018 Russia World Cup on Monday.

Defeat to Sweden on aggregate means Gli Azzurri will not feature on international football's biggest stage for the first time since 1958.

Since Monday, manager Gian Piero Ventura has been sacked while Gianluigi Buffon, Giorgio Chiellini and Andrea Barzagli have all retired from the national team.

So too has Daniele De Rossi, although that's not the only reason the 34-year-old has been making headlines in recent days.

During the game against Sweden, De Rossi was captured arguing with Italy's coaching staff about being asked to warm up before going on.

De Rossi's argument was that players like Lorenzo Insigne - a forward - should be playing instead of him considering they desperately needed a goal.

The Roma midfielder is ready to move on and now it's been revealed what his final class act was as an Italy international.

According to Sweden player Pontus Jansson and manager Janne Andersson, De Rossi came onto their team bus before they left to congratulate them and apologise.

Before the game at the San Siro, Italy's fans booed throughout Sweden's national anthem, which De Rossi clearly bad about.

Jansson said, per Football Italia: "He (De Rossi) said well done and apologised for how some of the players behaved in Stockholm, and for how some of the fans booed our national anthem in the return leg.

"The whole atmosphere on the bus was like: 'Wow, did that really happen?'. It was one of the nicest moments for a long time actually, what a damn gentleman."

And Andersson added: "That's sport at its best - you can brawl with each other out on the pitch, it can be a 'small war', but afterwards you shake each others' hands."

What a legend De Rossi is. Buffon was lauded for congratulating Sweden's players at full-time while his teammates cried and his fellow veteran deserves just as much praise.

It just goes to show that class is indeed permanent.