1st female soccer player to win the Ballon d'Or immediately asked if she can twerk onstage by host
After 62 years, a female soccer player was finally honored with the Ballon d’Or award, which is presented to the best soccer player of the year. However, the historic moment was immediately tarnished after her acceptance speech by the host, who asked the athlete if she could twerk onstage.
Before the moment of shockingly candid sexism by French DJ Martin Solveig, Ada Hegerberg, a striker for France’s Lyon and Norway’s women’s national soccer team, became the first female player to take home the Ballon d’Or award in Paris. Hegerberg, who previously became the first woman to win the Norwegian Gold Ball for the best footballer in Norway, thanked her teammates, her coach and the president of the club, Jean-Michel Aulas. She added, “I also want to thank France Football. This is a huge step for women’s football.”
Solveig inexplicably asked the player, “Est-ce que tu sais twerker?” which translates to, “Do you know how to twerk?”
She immediately shut the host down with a firm “No” before leaving the stage.
Martin Solveig really asked Ada Hegerberg, the first ever Ballon D'Or winner, to twerk. The absolute disrespect bruh. pic.twitter.com/Mtc5DBjS7a
— A West (@ayyy_west) December 3, 2018
Hegerberg has scored over 250 career goals at the age of 23, and for reasons unknown, Solveig believed it to be the perfect time to ask a professional female if she could twerk onstage. Naturally, those on social media were not here for the incredibly belittling comment.
So nice when sexual harassment happens on camera for all to see
— Robin Hood (@__Chimaera) December 3, 2018
Absolute trash: French DJ Martin Solveig asks Ada Hegerberg to twerk after receiving the first women's Ballon d'Or award. (Love her response, though.) This is the crap female athletes deal with on a daily basis around the world.pic.twitter.com/y2TLe3v4u9
— Grant Wahl (@GrantWahl) December 3, 2018
What kind of question is this? And why are these guys laughing? This is disgusting, I'm so sorry for Ada Hegerberg pic.twitter.com/FHUnZPSRqO
— Siavoush Fallahi (@SiavoushF) December 3, 2018
Martin Solvieg's asking Ada Hegerberg to twerk was awful enough on its own. But for him to ask her right after she won the highest individual honour in the most popular sport on the planet, after she gave touching speech encouraging young women in sport, was absolutely shocking!
— Mpendulo…私はものを作る (@hotel_twenty) December 3, 2018
Solveig took to his own Twitter to share an apology for the moment, which he chalks up to a misunderstanding of the term “twerk.” In the video he shared, he said, “Guys, I’m a little bit amazed by what I’m reading on the internet. Unfortunately, I didn’t want to offend anyone. This comes from a distortion of my English level, and my English culture level which obviously isn’t enough because I didn’t mean to offend anyone. I didn’t know this would be seen as such an offense… This was a joke. Probably a bad one, and I want to apologize to the one I may have offended. Uh, sorry about that.”
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
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