Ada Hegerberg made history today.

The Norwegian football player, who plays in France, was awarded the inaugural Ballon d’Or French football award for best female player in the world, beating out 14 other nominees (including Australian Sam Kerr).

She is the first woman to win an award – selected by a jury of 45 journalists – since the ceremony started in 1956.

It’s undeniably a huge achievement and it should’ve been her moment.

But a man standing next to her – French DJ Martin Solveig – stole it from her.

With one question he changed the narrative: People would no longer be talking about the success of a woman who worked hard to be the best.

Instead, they would be talking about a man and how he totally disrespected her achievement by asking her, live on stage, to twerk.

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

Sigh. Yep.

Solveig, who was hosting the awards ceremony, hijacked Hegerberg’s big moment with a totally inappropriate, sexist question.

Hegerberg expertly shut him down with a blunt “no” and of course, male winner Luka Modric did not face the same question.

To make the situation seem even more dire, Hegerberg had just used her acceptance speech to speak of the inequality between men and women in football.

She expressed frustration at living “in such a man’s world” and said the award would not make her reconsider her refusal to play for Norway, including at next June’s Women’s World Cup, because of her unhappiness over perceived inequality.

“A lot of things need to be done to make the conditions better for women who play football,” she said.

“I would like to end this speech with some words to young girls all over the world. Please believe in yourself.”

Twitter, rightly, was outraged by the lack of respect shown by Solveig, as was tennis player Andy Murray, who shared his thoughts on Instagram.

Andy Murray's response. Image: Instagram.

This video of Ada Hegerberg is worth your time. This is why she is the first female winner of the Ballon D'Or. Sadly the video of the goon asking her to twerk will be watched more than this. pic.twitter.com/HxNTDrivrz

— Darren Cleary (@RadioCleary) December 3, 2018

Imagine being the first female Ballon d'Or winner and everyone is talking about how Martin Solveig asking you to twerk. The disrespect shown to Ada Hegerberg is too much. I wonder if he asked Modric to twerk...

— Jay Carrington (@JaysCarrington) December 3, 2018

The disrespect shown to Ada Hegerberg is unbelievable. It's 2018 and we still have sexism and discrimination of genders in football? Fucking disgraceful. She has just won the Balon D'Or and you ask her to twerk? This is out of hand and needs to result in him losing his job and

— The Mancs Unite (@MancsTheUnite) December 4, 2018

Me rewatching the video of female Ballon d'Or winner Ada Hegerberg getting asked to twerk when she collected the award, like that actually happened what the fuck pic.twitter.com/GEzZgwvdlr

— Ben (@Pub_merchant98) December 4, 2018

To the unfunny, sexist jerk who tried to overshadow Ada Hegerberg's Ballon D'Or win: in the frankly unlikely case that you should ever accomplish something in your life, may a clown with an overblown sense of importance ruin your day.

— Barça News and Negativity (@cynicule) December 3, 2018

“It is historical and it is important to show young girls that they can believe in themselves.”

Let’s not allow a sexist comment to detract from a historic moment in women’s football and Ada Hegerberg‘s career.

Congratulations @AdaStolsmo???????????? https://t.co/oZFKLOjX7K

— Kick It Out (@kickitout) December 3, 2018

Ada Hegerberg should've twerked her hand upside that sexist prick's head.

— Mike (@SweetPs23) December 3, 2018

Norway's @AdaStolsmo is the first woman to win a #BallonDor since the ceremony started in 1956. A major achievement for women and sports. And to celebrate, the DJ asked her to twerk.

No. Not ok. Ever.

Two steps forward. Several steps back. #AJNewsGrid pic.twitter.com/W1yuK3oI1c

— Leah Harding (@LeahHardingAJE) December 3, 2018

i'm supposed to be writing but i'm just sittin here pissed off as hell. this was supposed to be ada hegerberg's special day, the culmination of EVERYTHING she's worked for. now the only thing people are talking about is a POS asking her to twerk.

— A West (@ayyy_west) December 3, 2018

Sick Dj, he needs to be punished for this. He just ruined what was supposed to be her biggest night.

— Oshilaja Adedayo (@oshilajadayo) December 3, 2018

Aware of the outrage after the show, Solveig tweeted a video of him claiming he meant no disrespect.

He offered a pretty weak apology, calling his comments a 'joke' and offered no direct apology for saying them. Instead, he said he was sorry if anyone was offended and did not offer any apology to Hegerberg herself.

"I’m a little bit amazed as to what I’m reading on the internet. I of course didn’t want to offend anyone," he said.

"This was a joke, probably a bad one and I want to apologise for the ones I may have offended. Sorry about that," he said.

Speaking after the incident, Hegerberg said she understood Solveig was joking.

"He came to me afterwards and was really sad that it went that way," she told the BBC. "I didn’t really think about it at the time to be honest. I didn’t really consider it a sexual harassment or anything in the moment."

-With AAP.

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