You really couldn’t make it up.

It should have been the crowning moment in Norway and Lyon football star Ada Hegerberg’s career.

And it could also have been a massive PR triumph for the organisers of the world football awards, the Ballon d’Or.

Hegerberg had just been named the greatest woman player on the planet by the nice chaps at the Ballon d’Or, the first time the award had been made for a star of the women’s game.

But as she basked in her moment of glory – and world football bosses undoubtedly patted themselves on the back for their inclusive thinking – French DJ Martin Solveig clattered haplessly into the limelight.

Surely Solveig – on hand to spin the discs and add a dash of Gallic je ne sais quoi to the glittering ceremony – would compliment Hegerberg on her success? Surely he would hold her up as a role model for women across the globe? And surely he would make mention of how the women’s game was now being treated as seriously as the men’s?

Sadly not.

Our 42-year-old continental crooner used the historic moment to take the opportunity to ask Hegerberg if she could twerk.

And in one moment of knuckle-headed, Neanderthalic, idiocy, any thought that football is a game which treats women as equals was kicked well and truly into touch.

Apparently Solveig is something of a big name in French music. He once reached the giddy heights of number five in the UK charts, but can also boast a number one hit in Austria. Oh, and Belgium.

He has, of course, issued the mandatory apology. His English language skills were not up to the job, he said. He had attempted a joke and had no idea it would cause offence.

Thanks for that Martin. Very helpful. Not.

Moments later the whole sorry caper was trending on Twitter and the Ballon d’Or’s reputation was in tatters.

It was the worst of PR own goals.

 

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