On Sunday evening, Manchester United defender Victor Lindelof shown class by voluntarily relinquishing his leadership while on international duty for Sweden.

Following Andreas Granqvist’s retirement, the 29-year-old was elected captain of his country in August 2021, and has led the Blue and Yellow out 17 times in total.

However, for personal reasons, the United no.2 chose to sit out Sweden’s most recent Euro 2024 qualifier against Estonia. He handed up the armband to Albin Ekdal, who was playing his 70th and final international game.

Ekdal has spent much of his Swedish career alongside Victor, and the duo were on the field together again as the Spezia midfielder bowed out with a 2-0 win.

In a post on Instagram, Lindelof candidly wrote: “End of a great journey. It’s been an honour my friend ”.

Ekdal received a standing ovation after being substituted by Hugo Larsson on 72 minutes in Stockholm.

The hosts won 2-0 at the Friends Arena thanks to goals from Viktor Claesson and Emil Forsberg, with Victor finally regaining the armband after playing the whole 90 minutes.

Victor and Sweden will not compete in Euro 2024 next summer after coming third in their qualification group.

Janne Andersson, the country’s head coach, has also decided to step down, with his team failing to reach the finals of a European Championship for the first time since 1996.