The Lyon star was asked to twerk after taking to the podium to receive her award, sparking an outrage on social media.

The 2018 Ballon d'Or was meant to be a perfect award ceremony, with Luka Modric ending the Messi-Cristiano duopoly and Ada Hegerberg claiming the first women's prize. However, one incident marred the event in controversy.

Once the Norwegian star had taken to the podium to clinch her title, the host Martin Solveig aimed a joke at the recipient which was deemed sexist by the majority. The DJ asked the Lyon ace whether she knew how to twerk, an inquiry which was met with a firm "no" as she walked off the stage.

His remark sparked outrage on social media, with many taking to Twitter to slam the host. While a number of accusations were hurled his way, and rightly so, Hegerberg later confessed that sexual harassment was not her interpretation of the incident.

The Ballon d'Or winner opened up about the controversy after the hype died down, revealing to reporters that his question did not faze her at that time. She insists that all that was on her mind was joy from winning the inaugural award, revealing that she had received an apology from the man himself for his action.

"I've had a lot of questions about that subject," Hegerberg said, as per Fox Sports Asia. "He came to me after and he was really, really sad that it went that way.

Watch Hegerberg's response after being asked if she knows how to twerk

"I didn't think about it in that moment, I didn't consider it as a sexual harassment or anything.

"I was just happy to get a dance and celebrate winning the Ballon d'Or, to be honest."

DJ Martin later took to Twitter in an attempt to clear the air surrounding the controversy. In a video message, he issued a public apology to the 23-year-old while also blaming his command of English, or lack thereof to be more precise, for his poor joke.

"I am a little bit amazed as to what I am reading on the internet," he stated. "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 offense.

"Especially if you consider the sequence in total when we ended up dancing to Frank Sinatra.

"This was a joke, probably a bad one, and I want to apologize for the one I may have offended, sorry about that."

Nonetheless, Hegerberg will now bask in the glory of winning the first ever Women's Ballon d'Or. After scoring a whopping 42 goals in 25 games across all competitions last season, winning the 2017/18 Division 1 Féminine and UEFA Women's Champions League, it came as little surprise to see the Norwegian emerge on top in the votings.