'Least known' World Cup player gains over half-a-million followers after online campaign

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Martin Macdonald | Writer

Content writer covering football, formula 1 and movies

A footballer once dubbed by some as the 'least known' footballer set to take part at this summer's 2026 World Cup has enjoyed an increase in fame thanks to a social media campaign.

Tim Payne of Wellington Phoenix previously had around 5,000 social media followers but this has skyrocketed to over 700,000 after a campaign by influencer Valen Scarsini, known as 'elscarso' online.

Scarsini urged his 697k TikTok and 458k Instagram followers to follow Payne and start traction about the player by posting about him.

"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," the influencer said in a video that has gained 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."

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Payne contributed one goal and four assists during New Zealand's World Cup qualifying campaign and has been named in Darren Bazeley’s 26-man squad for the country’s third appearance at the finals.

They are officially the lowest-ranked team in the tournament, too, so are certainly up against in a group alongside Iran, Egypt and Belgium.

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.

"Appreciate the love! Gracias, hermano."

'Elcarso' achieved something similar in 2025 when he urged his followers into action with a video asking them to follow Swiss club FC Balzers. So many of them did so that the club gained a follower count higher than that of Switzerland's biggest club, FC Basel.