New Zealand Footballer Tim Payne Becomes Unlikely Superstar After Social Media Campaign

The World Cup has catapulted one New Zealand footballer into unlikely stardom, while another was left wondering how to tell his fiancée they needed to cancel their wedding. Squad selection for the world’s biggest sporting spectacle can throw up lots of stories, and few have been as quirky as those involving two relative unknowns from the Land of the Long White Cloud. In one tale, Kiwi defender Tim Payne has become an unlikely superstar after a football influencer from Argentina called on his followers to unite and make the little-known 32-year-old a “hero” of the coming World Cup. El Scarso, also known as Valen Scarsini, identified Payne as the least-known player at the tournament in Canada, the United States and Mexico based on his small social media following. Payne had around 4,700 followers on Instagram earlier this week. After being singled out by El Scarso, that number rose at a rate of almost 1,000 per minute to more than a million by Friday. Payne’s following is now six times that of New Zealand’s captain and best-known player, Nottingham Forest forward Chris Wood.