Martin Solveig has said that he was sorry to people who “may have been offended” – classic non-apology
French DJ Martin Solveig has taken to Twitter to apologise to Norwegian footballer and inaugural winner of the women’s Ballon d’Or Ada Hegerberg after asking her to twerk shortly after receiving her award on-stage.
The 42-year-old Parisian DJ was understandably the subject of widespread criticism for his sexist joke, which many described as an indication of continuing sexist attitudes in sport.
Absolute trash: French DJ Martin Solveig asks Ada Hegerberg to twerk after receiving the first women's Ballon d'Or award. (Love her response, though.) This is the crap female athletes deal with on a daily basis around the world.pic.twitter.com/y2TLe3v4u9
— Subscribe to GrantWahl.com (@GrantWahl) December 3, 2018
Martin Solveig really asked Ada Hegerberg, the first ever Ballon D'Or winner, to twerk. The absolute disrespect bruh. pic.twitter.com/Mtc5DBjS7a
— Aaron West (@oeste) December 3, 2018
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
— Seán Walker (@SeanWalkerSport) December 3, 2018
“Apologies to anyone who may have been offended,” said Solveig on Twitter, in what has become something of a classic apology, non-apology style used by people who have been caught out while behaving like arseholes. “This was a joke, probably a bad one, and I want to apologise.”
In a video posted shortly afterwards he said: “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.”
Speaking after the incident, Hegerberg said that Solveig has spoken privately too her, telling the BBC:
“He came to me afterwards and was really sad that it went that way. 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.”
