Tim Payne, a defender from New Zealand, has surprisingly enjoyed a sharp rise in popularity in recent days, all thanks to a South American video maker.
In a short period of time, Payne, 32, went from having just under 5000 Instagram followers to over 1.4 million.
El Scarso, an Argentinean influencer with over 500,000 Instagram followers, is solely responsible for the rise.
El Scarso, whose real name is Valen Scarsini, set out to find the least well-known player going into the World Cup.
Eventually, he recognized it as the seasoned New Zealand defender.
Scarsini then issued a challenge to his supporters, asking them to boost Payne’s popularity and number of followers.
Tim Payne, a seasoned Kiwi defender, has had an amazing ascent on social media.
“We have to start making videos feeding the legend of Tim Payne,” Scarsini stated. “If you have the World Cup [sticker] album, upload a photo with his sticker.” The New Zealand defender (shown left) currently has over 1.4 million Instagram followers.
“The objective is to find out how many people are familiar with Tim Payne prior to the start of the World Cup.”
The creation of the song “I’ve got his back” has also contributed to Payne’s recent rise to prominence. I encourage him. The chorus of the song says, “I’ve been rooting for him from the beginning. Tim Payne, from cradle to grave.” You’re amazing. I support you at every turn.
Since then, Payne has reacted to the sudden increase in his fame.
“Man, I was wondering why my social media was going crazy when I came across your post.”
“Thank you for the love!” Payne went on, “Gracias, hermano. I just want to say a huge thank you to you first, Valen.”
To put it mildly, the past 48 hours have been quite hectic.
“I just wanted to say how appreciative I am to be representing my country and how much I value the love from all over the world.”
