Sawt Falasteen - New Zealand World Cup player becomes social media star with influencer help

The right-back, who plays his club football for Wellington Phoenix in the A League, has gained more than one million followers on Instagram in just two days to become New Zealand's most followed football account.

On Wednesday, Payne had just 4,000 followers before social media influencer Valen Scarsini, known as 'elscarso' online, began a campaign to boost the World Cup's least followed footballer.

"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," Scarsini said on Wednesday.

"Within group G, in New Zealand, is Tim Payne. He is really the least known. He does not reach 5000 followers."

Scarsini asked people to "explode his posts with likes and comments" to make Payne a household name.

Two days on and Payne now has more than 1 million followers on Instagram, forcing a rare post while in a pre-World Cup camp in Florida.

Speaking initially in Spanish, Payne thanked fans for the support.

"Please excuse my Spanish, I'm still practising on Duolingo," he said on Friday, before continuing in English.

"Just want to say a massive thank you first to you, Valen, it's been a pretty crazy 48 hours to say the least.

"I just wanted to also express that I'm very grateful to represent my country at this World Cup, and I appreciate all the love from all around the world.

"Muchas gracias."

Payne now has more followers than New Zealand's All Whites, which are yet to reach 45,000, and his national team captain, Nottingham Forest striker Chris Wood, who has 162 thousand followers.

New Zealand plays Iran, Egypt and Belgium in their World Cup pool, and are seeking to win their first World Cup match at the third attempt.

R.Shaban--SF-PST