'Least-known' World Cup player gains half a million followers

New Zealand defender Tim Payne unwittingly shot to social media fame thanks to one Argentine influencer's mission to promote the World Cup's "least-known" player.

Over a few days, the stunt increased Payne's Instagram follower count from fewer than 5,000 to 600,000 - more than the All Whites' record goalscorer Chris Wood and New Zealand prime minster Christopher Luxon combined - with the number still rising.

Valen Scarsini, known as 'elscarso' online, shared a video calling on his 697k TikTok and 458k Instagram followers to follow and make posts about the Wellington Phoenix player to boost his profile.

"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.

"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."

One post on Payne's profile, which celebrated his 50th appearance for New Zealand in March, now has over 50k comments.

Payne, 32, scored one and assisted four during the All Whites' World Cup qualifying campaign and was included in Darren Bazeley's 26-man squad for the nation's third ever finals.

The tournament's lowest-ranked side, New Zealand will begin their first campaign since 2010 against Iran before taking on Egypt and Belgium in their bid to progress from Group G.

In a follow-up video Scarsini revealed that Payne had messaged him about the surprise attention his account was attracting.

"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."

Scarsini pulled off a similar feat last year, when the Instagram follower count of second-tier Swiss side FC Balzers - the football club with "the smallest fan base", by his estimation - far exceeded that of top-tier champions FC Basel after he published a video calling his followers to action.

At the start of the 2025/2026 season, Sunderland attracted a huge following from across the Atlantic after a popular Mexico football account threw their support behind the Black Cats.