French DJ and musician Martin Solveig has been getting blasted on social media for a question he posed to Norwegian soccer star Ada Hegerberg on Monday night, just moments after she made history by winning the first ever Ballon d’Or award for women.
“Do you know how to twerk?” Solveig asked, sparking shocked looks from those in attendance.
“No,” Hegerberg said solemnly.
The 23-year-old had just taken the stage in Paris to receive the prestigious France Football award — which for 62 years, had only been reserved for male players — when Solveig asked the question.
“Unbelievable,” tweeted US soccer pro Lindsey Horan in response. “She just won the first ever Ballon D’Or for women.”
Sports Illustrated writer Grant Wahl said, “This is the crap female athletes deal with on a daily basis around the world.”
“Utterly disgusting and unfortunately not surprising given continued misogyny in the world/sports,” added Merritt Paulson, majority owner of the MLS Portland Timbers.
Solveig was trying his best to damage control on Monday night, posting multiple statements online, apologizing for what happened.
“This was a joke, probably a bad one,” he said. “People who have followed me for 20 years know how respectful I am especially with women…I explained to [Hegerberg] 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.”
The Norwegian striker later told John Leicester of the Associated Press that she wasn’t upset by what Solveig said — and never viewed it as sexist or offensive.
“I didn’t take it as that at all,” she said. “Sad if people thought about the situation like that, but it didn’t come to my mind at all. I think there are a lot of other subjects we need to be discussing when talking about sexual matters.”
With Post wires