Women's Ballon d'Or Winner Ada Hegerberg Asked Bizarre 'Twerk' Question

Rob is senior football editor at GiveMeSport, with over 15 years experience covering sport in various capacities since graduating from the University of Gloucestershire in 2008 with a degree in journalism.

A childhood obsession for all things football developed into a career writing about the beautiful game, initially producing content for clients including Luton Town Football Club and the PGMOL. His first big interviews were with Premier League referees Howard Webb and Michael Oliver in 2009.

He then spent four years producing written content for a betting website, mainly focusing on football, and was there to cover various games and tournaments including the 2010 World Cup and Euro 2012.

Rob joined GiveMeSport in 2013 (initially as a sub-editor before becoming a senior writer and then senior editor in 2020) and has covered countless football matches and other sporting events, interviewed various high-profile figures including Rio Ferdinand, Peter Crouch and Theo Walcott, and written well over 10,000 articles during that time.

Rob has played a key role in GiveMeSport's coverage of the World Cups in 2014, 2018 and 2022, plus Euro 2016, Euro 2020 and Euro 2024, along with many Champions League finals.

While football is Rob's area of expertise, he has also covered a wide range of other sports during his time at GiveMeSport including boxing, tennis and darts, as well as the 2016, 2020 and 2024 Olympic Games.

While the men’s Ballon d’Or was established way back in 1956, it took another 62 years before the women’s version (Ballon d’Or Feminin) was finally introduced in 2018.

Since then, the prestigious individual accolade has been won by four different players. Spain and Barcelona star Aitana Bonmatí won the women’s Ballon d’Or in 2025, 2024 and 2023, while her compatriot Alexia Putellas won it in 2022 and 2021.

Nobody claimed the award in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. USA’s Megan Rapinoe won it in 2019, but the inaugural award was presented to Norwegian forward Ada Hegerberg.

Aged 23 at the time, Hegerberg helped Lyon win the Champions League by scoring in the final against Wolfsburg in Kyiv.

However, the crowning moment of her career was sadly overshadowed by the Ballon d’Or co-host, who caused an almighty stir with a completely inappropriate comment to the Norway star while on stage.

French DJ Martin Solveig was co-host of the event and bizarrely asked Hegerberg during the presentation: “Do you know how to twerk?”

Showing shrift to the Frenchman’s question, Hegerberg responded with a blunt: “No.”

An enormous backlash on social media ensued, prompting Solveig to issue a public apology via social media.

"Apologies to anyone who may have been offended," he wrote on Twitter (now X). “This was a joke, probably a bad one, and I want to apologise."

In a video message, he added: "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."

However, the damage had already been done. Tennis star Andy Murray reacted to the footage by posting on Instagram: "Another example of the ridiculous sexism that still exists in sport.

"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."

While the charity Women in Sport said in a statement: "The sexist remarks made by Solveig were completely inappropriate and show just how much work is still left to do to create a society that is free from sexism and discrimination.

"Our Beyond 30 research has shown that nearly 40% of women working in sport have experienced discrimination, while 30% have experienced inappropriate behaviour from the opposite sex.

"In her speech, Ada Hegerberg implored young girls all over the world to believe in themselves and we hope that this moment will not overshadow her incredible achievement of becoming the first recipient of the women's Ballon d'Or."

The situation would have blown up more, but Hegerberg’s reaction saved Solveig from further backlash.

"He came to me afterwards and was really sad that it went that way,” she told reporters. “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."

Hegerberg is still a Lyon player and has now scored a remarkable 292 goals in 307 appearances for the French outfit. She has also netted 55 goals in 101 games for the Norwegian national team.

As for Solveig, it won’t come as surprise to learn that he wasn’t involved in future Ballon d’or events.

He continued to DJ but announced his retirement in July 2025. “I’m leaving the stage with a full heart, stepping aside for the next generation. You’ll find me in the crowd, cheering them on at concerts and festivals,” he said.

“Music is my life - and always will be,” he added. “I’ll keep creating, for the joy, for the kids, and for/with artists I look up to."