It was a historic moment for women's football in Paris with the Ballon d'Or awarding its first ever women's player of the year. 

The award ceremony, which was created and decided by the French football magazine, is in its 63rd year and had been reserved for the best male player until this year.

Hegerberg was crowned the inaugural winner beating out 14 other nominees including Matildas and Perth Glory forward Sam Kerr. 

The Lyon forward was part of the winning Champions League side, scoring in the 4-1 win to beat Wolfsburg.

"It is fantastic. I don't have words. This is unbelievable. It's a big moment for me, " Hegerberg said as she accepted her award at the ceremony in France.

She ended her speech with some words of encouragement to young women: "Please, believe in yourself!"

Despite winning the award, Hegerberg said it will not make her reconsider her decision not to play for Norway, including at next June's Women's World Cup.

"A lot of things need to be done to make the conditions better for women who play football," she said. "It's all about how we respect women's football. I don't think the respect has been there.

"I wish the national team the best, though. We just follow two different paths at the moment."

However, the night will likely be remembered for the moment host DJ Martin Solveig asked Hegerberg to twerk after she received her award.

She said “no” and immediately walking off stage.

Fans were less than impressed with the request from Solveig and quickly criticised his actions.

Solveig has since made an apology citing he didn't "invite women to twerk but dance on a Sinatra song. Watch the full sequence People who have followed me for 20 years know how respectful I am especially with women". 

BBC asked Hegerberg about the comment Solveig made: "“He came to me afterwards and was really sad that it went that way.

"I didn’t really think about it at the time to be honest. I didn’t really consider it a sexual harassment or anything in the moment. I was just happy to win the Ballon d’Or.”