There have been plenty of missteps with international women’s soccer awards before, from a voting process heavily weighted towards fans that produced a weird result in the final nominees for FIFA’s Best Women’s Player award last year to the competing Ballon d’Or (awarded by France’s France Football magazine and merged with the FIFA World Player of the Year awards from 2010-15, but now separate again) not even having a women’s category until this year. And while it’s promising to see the Ballon d’Or finally handing out a women’s trophy, and while 23-year-old Ada Hegerberg (a striker for Norway and Olympique Lyonnais) was a very deserving winner with 42 goals in 25 club appearances this year, it was discouraging to see event host Martin Solveig (known for his work as a DJ and radio host in France) promptly ruin the moment by…asking her to twerk. Hegerberg was not impressed, and neither was French men’s star Kylian Mbappé (shown reacting below), and the same can be said for much of Twitter:
Martin Solveig really asked Ada Hegerberg, the first ever Ballon D'Or winner, to twerk. The absolute disrespect bruh. pic.twitter.com/Mtc5DBjS7a
— Aaron West (@oeste) December 3, 2018
Ada Hegerberg was the best player for the best team in European football and arguably the world at the age of TWENTY THREE.
Upon winning the first ever Ballon D’Or, you can ask permission to kneel at her feet. That’s the question you can ask. pic.twitter.com/ESZWvne8ff
— Unusual Efforts (@UnusualEfforts) December 3, 2018
I’m sorry, but I just can’t anymore. Every time I think we have taken a step forward we go back ten. Respect the person, respect the work and don’t be a f****** asshole! #nomorefuckstogive https://t.co/NuGk51hZvY
— Sif Atladóttir (@sifatla) December 3, 2018
Lyon striker Ada Hegerberg, first female Ballon D’Or winner after scoring over 250 career goals at the age 23, asked to twerk on stage in front of footballing giants and the public watching. Disgusting and really ruined her moment she deserved. Poor. pic.twitter.com/FSz0ozz2T4
— Sean (@SeanWalkerSport) December 3, 2018
Former tennis star Andy Murray also chimed in:
Andy Murray has thoughts. pic.twitter.com/BMuScXArhh
— Courtney Nguyen (@FortyDeuceTwits) December 3, 2018
And Solveig didn’t exactly improve matters with his “apology” afterwards:
This … is not an apology. https://t.co/367uuBjzmU
— Subscribe to GrantWahl.com (@GrantWahl) December 3, 2018
He did make it a little better with a subsequent tweet, but not by much:
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
And unfortunately, this presentation misstep got much more attention than Hegerberg’s actual speech:
2018 Women's Ballon d'Or winner Ada Hegerberg with a message in her acceptance speech: "To all women footballers out there – keep believing in yourself!!" 🇳🇴 https://t.co/hssTwIZJXd #BallonDor2018 pic.twitter.com/RibsxaLRVS
— AS USA (@English_AS) December 3, 2018
That’s a much better message than encouraging an award winner to twerk. And future presenters should learn what not to do from Solveig here. But for her part, Hedgerberg was gracious afterwards:
Ballon d’Or winner @AdaStolsmo says she wasn’t upset when French DJ Martin Solveig asked her if she could twerk at the award ceremony in Paris. Apologies for my framing at the beginning pic.twitter.com/LFzEoCccRo
— John Leicester (@johnleicester) December 3, 2018
