Novak Djokovic came under a barrage of criticism for his cameo during football's prize-giving night at the 67th annual ceremony of the Ballon d'Or.
Djokovic, who is competing in Paris this week, answered France Football's invitation to take part in Monday's extravaganza under the gaze of photographers, distinguished football head honchos, and world-class football stars.
The Serbian's task wasn't just walking the red carpet and posing for pictures with the men's best player Lionel Messi. Djokovic was entrusted to present the best women's footballer award to Spain's World Cup winner and Barcelona midfielder Aitana Bonmati.
Just before he took to the stage, the 36-year-old was given an ostentatious introduction fitting of his legendary career by the MC of the night - retired footballer Didier Drogba.
While tennis has always been Djokovic's favorite sport, he regards football as the greatest sport and shared during his short speech on stage that he thought about pursuing a career in football, having grown up watching his father playing the sport at a professional level. But he ended up choosing tennis.
"It's a huge honor to be here, I want to thank the Ballon d'Or and France Football for inviting me to be present here. It's a great privilege, obviously surrounded by the best players in the world, the greatest sport in the world. The sport I grew up with, obviously playing every single day. My father was a professional footballer and I did play a little bit."
But Djokovic's cameo caused a stir among fans and journalists. The responses were mixed, with a section slamming football's governing body for bestowing the honor of awarding one of the top prizes in football to someone who never played professional football.
One fan wrote, " Way to disrespect women’s football btw. Get somebody who’s won it before, a legend of the game, an ally, at the very least a male FOOTBALLER. Who is Djokovic and what’s he done to football in general let alone women’s football."
That wasn't the only fallout. Djokovic's claims regarding equal pay have caused furore in the past, opining that male players should be paid more than female players because "they bring in more spectators to matches." Djokovic would backtrack from that statement, clarify his stance, and later apologize.
The internet, however, never forgets and is unforgiving at times. One fan's comment read, "Nothing says ‘celebrate the achievement of female athletes’ like inviting a male athlete who advocated against equal pay to talk about himself and the completely different sport he plays."
Sports journalist Lavender Baj termed it "disrespectful" in a tweet on X (formerly Twitter), "We are living in the year of women’s football and we’re holding the Ballon d’Or in their international window and having Novak Djokovic present the award. The disrespect."
Another chimed in, describing Andy Murray as the ideal candidate among tennis players to hand out the prize. Murray is synonymous with being an advocate of gender and prize money equality in tennis. The tweet read, "If (and still a bad idea) you were going to pick a male tennis star to present an award to female sports stars you pick Andy Murray every day of the week."
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