New Zealand defender, Tim Payne, has unexpectedly become a viral social media sensation after an Argentine influencer launched a campaign aimed at promoting the World Cup’s “least-known” player.
The online push quickly transformed Payne’s digital presence, lifting his Instagram following from under 5,000 to around 600,000 within just a few days, surpassing both All Whites record scorer Chris Wood and New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon combined in follower count.
By Friday, his audience had surged further to 1.4 million and was still climbing.
The viral momentum began when Valen Scarsini, who goes by “elscarso” on social media, posted a video to his combined audience of over 1.1 million followers across TikTok and Instagram, urging people to boost the profile of the Wellington Phoenix player.
In the clip, which has since amassed more than six million views across platforms, Scarsini explained his unusual discovery process, “I looked at all the teams that play the World Cup for the least-known player and, after analysing one by one, I found it,” Scarsini said, in a video that has attracted over six million views across Instagram and TikTok.
He continued to build the narrative around Payne’s perceived anonymity and World Cup mission, “Tim Payne is a defender and has a very difficult task: help New Zealand win their first World Cup match. They have never won one.
“What needs to be done to be the hero of the World Cup? First, follow Tim Payne. I’m going to tag him.
“Explode his posts with likes and comments. We need to start naming Tim Payne everywhere.
“You have to make videos feeding the legend of Tim Payne. If you have the World Cup album, upload a photo with your sticker.”
The campaign quickly spilled into Payne’s own social media, with one post celebrating his 50th international appearance in March attracting more than 50,000 comments.
Payne, 32, contributed one goal and four assists during New Zealand’s World Cup qualifying campaign and was named in Darren Bazeley’s 26-man squad for what will be the nation’s third-ever appearance at the finals.
The lowest-ranked team in the tournament, New Zealand will open their campaign against Iran before facing Egypt and Belgium in Group G as they attempt to reach the knockout stage.
In a follow-up video, Scarsini revealed that Payne had personally contacted him after noticing the sudden surge in attention.
“Was wondering why my socials were blowing up and found your post, man,” wrote Payne, who signed for Blackburn Rovers as a teenager in 2012.
“Appreciate the love! Gracias, hermano.”
Payne later addressed the unexpected global attention himself in a video message recorded at New Zealand’s pre-World Cup training camp in Florida.
Speaking initially in Spanish, he said: “Please excuse my Spanish, I’m still practising on Duolingo,” before continuing in English.
“Just want to say a massive thank you first to you, Valen, it’s been a pretty crazy 48 hours to say the least.
“I just wanted to also express that I’m very grateful to represent my country at this World Cup, and I appreciate all the love from all around the world.
“Muchas gracias.”
Scarsini has previously engineered similar viral sports moments, including a campaign that boosted the Instagram following of Swiss second-tier side FC Balzers, which he described as having “the smallest fan base”, pushing it beyond top-flight champions FC Basel after his call to action.
More recently, Mexican football social media attention helped English club Sunderland attract a surge of international followers ahead of the 2025/2026 season after a popular account endorsed the Black Cats.
