New Zealand footballer Tim Payne may have been one of the least-known players at the 2026 World Cup, but he has unexpectedly become one of the tournament’s breakout stars after an Argentine influencer helped him go viral.
Valen Scarsini, a young Argentine content creator focused on football, sent his followers on a mission: “What if we make the least-known player the protagonist of the World Cup?”
In a video posted to Instagram and TikTok on Tuesday, Scarsini said he wanted to find a player that would “unite everyone” beyond nationalities.
With this goal, he looked up the Instagram following count of all players that will take part in the World Cup until he found the one with the least followers.
Before Scarsini’s video, Payne had just 4,715 followers. Just three days later, his follower count skyrocketed to 1.7 million, and his posts gathered thousands of likes and comments.
