French DJ Martin Solveig has been accused of sexism after asking the first female winner of the Ballon d'Or to twerk on stage.
Norwegian striker Ada Hegerberg won the prestigious prize last night after scoring 15 goals for Lyon during their Champions League campaign last season.
Think it's so important for us to not let an idiotic question overshadow @AdaStolsmo's moment, only 23 and she has already achieved so much. Let's stop talking about him and more about her speech 🙌🼠Congratulations #AdaHegerberg #EmpoweringWomen #BallondOr
— Stephanie Roche (@StephanieRoche9) December 4, 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
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
Ada Hegerberg is the 1st female #BallonDoR winner. A #sexist POS tried to ruin it by asking her to twerk on stage in front of her peers & watching public. So don’t let him. Her name is Ada Hegerberg & she was the first woman to win the ballon d’or today! That’s the story
— Mark Dyson (@DysonMarkA) December 3, 2018
Afterwards Solveig who was co-hosting the ceremony posted a message on Twitter to say sorry.
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
However, Hegerberg said it wasn't a big deal:
Sorry, you hysterical loons, #AdaHegerberg says it wasn’t sexist, ill conceived, but not sexist. Hope you can wind your necks back in now #ballondor pic.twitter.com/cEK53lbXwk
— Dave (@d_greenleaf82) December 4, 2018
The Norwegian football association say they are pleased to see that Solveig received criticism. The NFF say that the focus should be on Hegerberg's football achievements and that male winner Luka Modric wouldn't have been asked to do the same.
Former Irish rugby international Sophie Spence has also hit out at the comments: 'I think it's absolutely shocking really. I think it takes away from the moment and what the celebration is all about. it takes huge dedication to be a successful athlete and to have that overshadowed is a shame'.
