A story of football, sexism and Ballon d'Or

Yesterday Luka Modric won the Ballon d'Or breaking the Ronaldo-Messi hegemony that had lasted for 10 years.
The 2018 edition of the event saw the introduction of the most important individual recognition of European football also for women and the victory went to the 23 year-old Norwegian Ada Hegerberg who with her Lyon won the French championship and the Champions League.

But something happened that overshadowed the prizes and the protagonists who won them. To animate the evening was the French DJ Martin Solveig who once announced Ada Hegerberg on the stage has thought well to ask if knew how to twerk.

The 23 year old Norwegian seemed visibly upset and answered with a sharp "no" to that stupid and absolutely out of place question made in that context, and I think it does not take a genius to understand it. Hegerberg was also about to leave the stage just to express the discomfort of that situation to say the least surreal. As seen in the video, the camera detaches just as Ada is about to leave the stage, then obviously convinced to stay, she reluctantly agreed to dance with David Ginola. Immediately after the ceremony, Martin Solveig tweeted saying that he had apologized to Hegerberg for what had happened. 

I explained to [Ada] 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.

They did not wait for the response words of the Olympique Lyonnais player:

He came to me afterwards and was really sad that it went that way. I didn’t really consider it sexual harassment or anything in the moment. I was just happy to do the dance and win the Ballon d’Or.

Andy Murray was among those on social media who criticised Solveig’s comment, calling it “another example of the ridiculous sexism in sport.”

What questions did they ask Mbappé and Modric? I’d imagine something to do with football. And to everyone who thinks I’m 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.

Everything seems back, the protagonists of the affair have immediately dampened the tone but it seems clear that there is still a big problem of equality between men and women in football. It is a few days ago in fact the news that during a match of the 2nd Veneto category, the coach of Real Stroppari has turned to the woman referee who was directing the game, phrases stupid and discriminatory. All these episodes are products of ignorance, stupidity and superficiality that we hope can be permanently erased in a sport that should promote equality, loyalty and respect towards everyone.