Remember Will Grigg at the 2016 Euros? We have a new internet sensation for the upcoming FIFA World Cup… and he may become even bigger! His name is Tim Payne.
In the lead-up to the 2026 FIFA World Cup, most football fans are focused on the usual suspects: Brazil, France, Argentina, England. But one name that nobody expected to be on everyone’s lips is Tim Payne whose social following, just days ago, could barely fill a conference room.
That has changed in spectacular fashion, thanks to one Argentine content creator with a big idea – and an even bigger audience.
Wellington Phoenix and All Whites defender Payne had around 4,700 followers just a day before the story caught fire. He now has half a million – and counting.
The man responsible? Internet personality El Scarso – real name is Valen Scarsini – made a video declaring his mission to make the “least-known footballer” at the tournament into its biggest star.
In the video, delivered in Spanish and clearly aimed at his enormous Latin American fanbase, Scarsini walked viewers through his research: he had gone team by team, squad by squad, hunting for the player ‘with the lowest profile’ at the entire World Cup. His search led him to Group G and New Zealand’s All Whites – and there, buried in the squad list, was Tim Payne. At the time of writing, the video has amassed nearly four million views on Instagram and more than two million on TikTok.
Scarsini’s pitch was simple: forget national allegiances, forget the superstars. What if the whole world got behind one underdog? He urged his followers to find Payne’s Instagram, flood his posts with likes and comments, create videos celebrating “the legend of Tim Payne,” and dig out their Panini World Cup albums to find his sticker. The goal, he said, was to see just how many people could learn the name Tim Payne before the first whistle blew.
It worked – incredibly.
Payne now holds the biggest following of any New Zealand football-related account, far eclipsing All Whites captain Chris Wood’s 162,000 Instagram followers, while the All Whites, Wellington Phoenix and Auckland FC all sit under 100,000. A veteran defender has, almost overnight, become more famous on social media than the team he plays for.
Now, as New Zealand prepare to face Iran on June 16 in their World Cup opener, there will be millions of people around the world cheering on a defender they had never heard of a week ago. Scarsini’s next move is to give Payne a nickname for his new legion of fans, declaring:
“He is already the player of the tournament.”
