Striker Ada Hegerberg won the first Ballon d’Or for women, so she had to ask herself if she could wiggle her butt – an apology followed. The men were awarded World Footballer Luka Modric.
The Norwegian Ada Hegerberg, footballer at Olympique Lyon, was named the worlds best player in Paris. But just a moment after she had called the first Women’s Ballon d’Or in women’s speech in her acceptance speech and appealed to little girls to believe in herself, she was given a moderator’s commentary for sexism -Protest worried.
One of the moderators, musicians and DJ Martin Solveig asked Hegerberg instead of football and their performance only, if they could “twerk”, so with bent knees provocative with hip and butt could wiggle. Hegerberg responded with a curt “No”, turned away with a stony face, in the audience made the singer for whispering. And, although Hegerberg agreed shortly after a “normal” dance with Solveig, for outrage in the social networks: “An example of the ridiculous sexism that still exists in sports,” as tennis pro Andy Murray via Instagram.
After the award ceremony (and the increasing criticism) DJ Solveig apologized – and relied on his lack of English language skills: “It was a joke, maybe a bad one.” He was unaware that anyone could interpret his statement as offensive, Solveig said via video. He apologizes to anyone “who may have felt offended”.
Hegerberg himself reacted calmly to the situation: “I did not think that was sexist,” she said later. Solveig had apologized to her. When asked if a male footballer would ever be asked to do so, she said, “Good question.”
In the men’s Ballon d’Or, Luka Modric was awarded to world footballer. The Croatian superstar of Real Madrid kept the upper hand in the fight for the golden ball for the best footballer in the world and succeeded Cristiano Ronaldo. Awarded by the French trade magazine “France Football” since 1956, the award is independent of the World Federation and FIFA holds its own World Player of the Year award.
“The Ballon d’Or has always been more than a childhood dream for me,” said Modric. He prevailed before defending champion Ronaldo and the world champions Antoine Griezmann and Kylian Mbappe. Modric is the first Ballon d’Or winner since Kaka 2007.
The newly created “Kopa” trophy for the best U21 player in the world went to Kylian Mbappe – even the triumph of the PSG actor was anything but a surprise. With Salzburg’s Amadou Haidara was also a player from the Austrian Bundesliga among the ten nominees.
Sources: Die Presse