{"id":246336,"date":"2026-06-02T00:15:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-02T00:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/02\/how-the-world-cups-least-known-footballer-gained-4-million-followers-in-a-week\/"},"modified":"2026-06-02T00:15:00","modified_gmt":"2026-06-02T00:15:00","slug":"how-the-world-cups-least-known-footballer-gained-4-million-followers-in-a-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/02\/how-the-world-cups-least-known-footballer-gained-4-million-followers-in-a-week\/","title":{"rendered":"How the World Cup\u2019s \u2018least-known\u2019 footballer gained 4 MILLION followers in a week"},"content":{"rendered":"

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New Zealand\u2019s World Cup-bound Tim Payne said it was \u201cpretty crazy\u201d to have become the country\u2019s most followed football account after an influencer identified him as the \u201cleast known\u201d player in the competition and called for fans to boost his posts. <\/p>\n

The 32-year-old right-back, who plays his club football for Wellington Phoenix in the A-League, has gained more than one million followers on Instagram in just two days to become New Zealand\u2019s most followed football account. <\/p>\n

On Wednesday, Payne had just 4000 followers before social media influencer Valen Scarsini, known as \u2018elscarso\u2019 online, began a campaign to boost the World Cup\u2019s least followed footballer. <\/p>\n

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Get all the latest football news, highlights and analysis delivered straight to your inbox with Fox Sports Sportmail. Sign up now ><\/a><\/b><\/i><\/p>\n

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Tim Payne of New Zealand. Photo by Mark Nolan\/Getty Images<\/span>Source: Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI looked at all the teams that play the World Cup for the least-known player and, after analysing one by one, I found it,\u201d Scarsini said on Wednesday. <\/p>\n

\u201cWithin group G, in New Zealand, is Tim Payne. He is really the least known. He does not reach 5000 followers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Scarsini asked people to \u201cexplode his posts with like sand comments\u201d to make Payne a household name. <\/p>\n

Three days on and Payne now has more than 4.2 million followers on Instagram, forcing a rare post while in a pre-World Cup camp in Florida. <\/p>\n

For context, Australian cricket captain Pat Cummins, arguably the country\u2019s most famous athlete, boasts 3.2 million followers.<\/p>\n

Speaking initially in Spanish, Payne thanked fans for the support.<\/p>\n

\u201cPlease excuse my Spanish, I\u2019m still practising on Duolingo,\u201d he said on Friday, before continuing in English. <\/p>\n

\u201cJust want to say a massive thank you first to you, Valen, it\u2019s been a pretty crazy 48 hours to say the least.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just wanted to also express that I\u2019m very grateful to represent my country at this World Cup, and I appreciate all the love from all around the world. <\/p>\n

\u201cMuchas gracias.\u201d<\/p>\n

Payne now has more followers than New Zealand\u2019s All Blacks, which are at 2.8 million, and his national team captain, Nottingham Forest striker Chris Wood, who has 162 thousand followers. <\/p>\n

New Zealand plays Iran, Egypt and Belgium in their World Cup pool, and are seeking to win their first World Cup match at the third attempt.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New Zealand\u2019s World Cup-bound Tim Payne said it was \u201cpretty crazy\u201d to have become the country\u2019s most followed football account after an influencer identified him as the \u201cleast known\u201d player in the competition and called for fans to boost his posts. The 32-year-old right-back, who plays his club football for Wellington Phoenix in the A-League, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":246337,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6807],"tags":[156],"class_list":{"0":"post-246336","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-leagues-cups","8":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246336","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=246336"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246336\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/246337"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=246336"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=246336"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=246336"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}