{"id":2163,"date":"2026-06-04T17:13:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T09:13:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dxtynews.com\/?p=2163"},"modified":"2026-06-04T17:13:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T09:13:13","slug":"how-tim-payne-reached-five-million-followers-in-just-one-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dxtynews.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/04\/how-tim-payne-reached-five-million-followers-in-just-one-week\/","title":{"rendered":"How Tim Payne reached five million followers in just one week"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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New Zealand footballer Tim Payne met the influencer behind his stunning viral fame on Wednesday, presenting him with a team shirt after gaining almost five million Instagram followers in a week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Argentine social media giant Valen Scarsini, known as “El Scarso”, last week asked his fans to boost unheralded Payne’s following, calling him the “least known” player at the World Cup.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It kicked off an online explosion of interest with Payne going from 4,000 followers to 4.9 million in a few days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The two met for the first time at New Zealand’s training camp in Florida, with Payne thanking Scarsini for his support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“It’s obviously good for myself and New Zealand football too,” Payne said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“It puts a light on us which is a positive thing but at the same time, for me, I don’t change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I’m still the person I am, so I just keep trying to do what I do, which is play football and focus on trying to perform for my country.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scarsini was asked, “Why me man?” by the defender who plays for Wellington Phoenix.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Fly to Argentina!” Scarsini told him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Payne’s Instagram account now has more followers than the rugby-obsessed country’s All Blacks team, who have a mere 2.8 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scarsini travelled to Florida to watch Payne and New Zealand in a pre-World Cup friendly at Inter Miami’s stadium on Tuesday, where they were beaten 4-0 by fellow World Cup qualifiers Haiti.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

New Zealand play England on Saturday in their final friendly before the World Cup begins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They will face Iran, Egypt and Belgium in World Cup Group G.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New Zealand footballer Tim Payne met the influencer beh […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2164,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2163","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dxtynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2163","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dxtynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dxtynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dxtynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dxtynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2163"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dxtynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2163\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2165,"href":"https:\/\/dxtynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2163\/revisions\/2165"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dxtynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2164"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dxtynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2163"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dxtynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2163"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dxtynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2163"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}