2018 is the first year that association football’s biggest award, the Ballon d’Or, has had a women’s prize as well. And because 2018 gonna 2018, it’s also the first year marred by a sexism scandal!
Ada Hegerberg, the 23-year-old Norwegian striker currently playing for Lyon, got to enjoy her historic win for about four seconds after being presented with the trophy by French EDM producer Martin Solveig.
Then he made a dumb joke about whether she could twerk in celebration.
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
I’m not sure which reaction I love more: Hegerberg’s flat shutdown, or Mbappe’s incredulous stare.
(Also, now we know the infinitive of “twerk” in French. Useful.)
LOLOLOL pic.twitter.com/QiXlxz7a68
— C.Y. Lee (@cxy) December 3, 2018
She and Solveig danced to Frank Sinatra’s ‘Fly Me To The Moon’ right after she accepted the award, for some reason.
Hegerberg’s teammate Lucy Bronze told the BBC that Solveig was asking each winner what their celebratory dance was, and Hegerberg herself said she wasn’t particularly fazed by the question.
“[Solveig] came to me afterwards and was really sad that it went that way. I didn’t really think about it at the time to be honest.
“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.”
Ada Hegerberg is congratulated by her teammates,
But twerking is still a feminine (and queer) coded dance with sexual overtones – it’s not the same as asking her if she would do a celebratory moonwalk, or the worm, or the Batusi.
It’s not the end of the damn world. It’s just a dumb, unquestionably sexist comment that meant that the first ever winner of the Ballon d’Or Feminin has to answer journalist questions about twerking instead of, say, how she scored a record-breaking 15 goals last season.
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
BTW: Australia’s best footballer, Sam Kerr, came in fifth in the journalist-voted poll.