Sporting World Reacts In Shock As Ada Hegerberg Asked To Twerk At Ballon d’Or Ceremony

Lyon forward Ada Hegerberg received the most prestigious individual award in world football as she was announced as the inaugural winner of the women’s Ballon d’Or. The talented forward was voted as the best female player in the world having scored a remarkable 107 goals in just 82 games for Lyon since her move in 2014.

Hegerberg played a crucial part as Lyon won both Ligue 1 and the Champions League in a hugely successful season. A goal in the Champions League final v Wolfsburg was remarkably her 15th in the competition, meaning she finished with the Golden Boot.

However, her collection of this deserved award was marred as DJ Martin Solveig asked her if she knew how to twerk, in a blatant display of everyday sexism. Hegerberg responded with a swift ‘No’ having just given a speech about inspiring young girls to get into football.

Solveig responded on Twitter with a video message:

“Apologies to anyone who may have been offended,this was a joke, probably a bad one, and I want to apologise.I am a little bit amazed as to what I am reading on the internet. I, of course, didn't want to offend anyone. This comes from a distortion of my English level and my English culture level, which is obviously not enough because I didn't mean to offend anyone and didn't know this could be seen as such an offence.Especially if you consider the sequence in total, when we ended up dancing to Frank Sinatra.”

Tennis star Andy Murray had his say on Instagram saying:

“To everyone who thinks people are overreacting and it was just a joke... it wasn't. I've been involved in sport my whole life and the level of sexism is unreal."

Meanwhile, Hegerberg herself played the issue down, telling BBC Sport:

"He came to me afterwards and was really sad that it went that way. I didn't really think about it at the time. I was just happy to do the dance and win the Ballon d'Or to be honest. I will have a glass of champagne when I get back."