Monday night was a historic night for Ada Hegerberg, the superstar footballer from Lyon. This is because she became the first woman to be awarded the Ballon d’Or award.
However presenter Martin Solveig dampened her evening with an inappropriate comment. The famous DJ asked the Hegerberg to twerk just moments are receiving the award.
The Norwegian footballer, who plays for Olympique Lyonnais in France, replied with a swift “no” and immediately left the stage.
Ada Hegerberg.
UEFA Women’s Champions League winner. Three times.
First female ever to win the #BallondOr.
Being asked about twerking.
Blatant sexism in 2018.pic.twitter.com/SnkKxoRNhG
— DW Sports (@dw_sports) December 3, 2018
The 23-year-old beat many world-known female footballers to receive the award. The list includes Denmark’s Pernille Harder, Lyon team-mate Dzsenifer Marozsan, Brazilian forward Marta and Australia’s Sam Kerr.
In the previous season, Hegerberg became French League’s top scorer with 31 goals. She also scored 15 goals in the Champions League which Lyon won. In this season, she has scored 12 league goals and four in Europe so far.
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Solveig later apologized on Twitter
Moments after the incident, Solveig took to Twitter and apologized saying it was a misunderstanding.
Sincere apologies to the one I may have offended. My point was : I don’t invite women to twerk but dance on a Sinatra song. Watch the full sequence People who have followed me for 20 years know how respectful I am especially with women pic.twitter.com/pnZX8qvl4R
— Martin Solveig (@martinsolveig) December 3, 2018
I explained to @AdaStolsmo the buzz and she told me she understood it was a joke. Nevertheless my apologies to anyone who may have been offended. Most importantly congratulations to Ada pic.twitter.com/DATdg0TfQk
— Martin Solveig (@martinsolveig) December 3, 2018
Sincere apologies to the one I may have offended. My point was: I don’t invite women to twerk but dance on a Sinatra song. Watch the full sequence. People who have followed me for 20 years know how respectful I am especially with women.
He later followed up up by tweeting: “I explained to Ada Hegerberg the buzz and she told me she understood it was a joke. Nevertheless my apologies to anyone who may have been offended. Most importantly congratulations to Ada.”
Hegerberg herself spoke after the incident, saying: “He came to me afterwards and was really sad that it went that way. I didn’t really consider it a sexual harassment or anything in the moment. I was just happy to do the dance and win the Ballon d’Or to be honest.”
Hegerberg has won the French league, Coupe de France and Champions League three times with Lyon. Her last individual award was 2016 UEFA Women’s Player of the Year.
Solveig is a French DJ who has been active since 1994. He rose to fame after his successful single “Hello” was released in 2010.