Before the 2026 World Cup, most football fans are focused on familiar players from teams such as Brazil, France, Argentina, England or Portugal.
But a name that no one expected to be mentioned so much is Tim Payne, whose number of followers on social networks was still modest just a few days before.
That has changed dramatically, thanks to an Argentine content creator with a big idea - and an even larger audience.
Payne, a defender of Wellington Phoenix and the New Zealand national team, only had about 4,700 followers a day before the story spread widely. Currently, his social media account has half a million followers and this number is still increasing.
The person behind this is El Scarso - real name Valen Scarsini. He made a video declaring his mission to turn "the least known player" at the 2026 World Cup.
Scarsini's call is very simple: Forget national loyalty, forget superstars. What will happen if the whole world supports someone who is not highly appreciated? Valen Scarsini calls on his followers to find Payne's Instagram, like and comment a lot on his posts, create videos praising "legend Tim Payne". The goal as Valen Scarsini shared is to see how many people can remember Tim Payne's name before the World Cup 2026 opening whistle.
The effect came surprisingly quickly.
Currently, Payne has the largest number of followers among New Zealand football-related accounts, far exceeding 162,000 followers on the Instagram of New Zealand national team captain Chris Wood, while both New Zealand, Wellington Phoenix and Auckland FC have below 100,000 followers. A veteran defender, overnight, has become more popular on social media than the team he plays for.
According to statistics, in just a few days, Payne's Instagram account has increased from 4,715 followers to 660,000 - surpassing both All Blacks football star Ardie Savea and Scarsini.
I am wondering why my posts on social media are so interested by so many people and happened to see your posts," Payne wrote in a message to Scarsini.
Tim Payne was born in 1994, is a defender currently playing for Wellington Phoenix club. He has 50 caps for the New Zealand national team.
At the 2026 World Cup, the New Zealand team is in Group G with Iran, Belgium and Egypt. Surely with the effect that Scarsini has created, the attention of fans around the world to Tim Payne will increase when the New Zealand team officially takes the field.
