{"id":460124,"date":"2026-06-04T06:06:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T06:06:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/460124\/"},"modified":"2026-06-04T06:06:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T06:06:10","slug":"tim-payne-meets-argentine-influencer-who-sparked-social-media-fame","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/460124\/","title":{"rendered":"Tim Payne meets Argentine influencer who sparked social media fame"},"content":{"rendered":"

All Whites defender Tim Payne, who has become an unlikely social media sensation<\/a> ahead of the FIFA World Cup, has met the Argentine influencer behind his rise to fame.<\/p>\n

Last week Argentine content creator Valen Scarsini, known online as El Scarso, dubbed Payne the World Cup\u2019s \u201cleast known player\u201d and declared his 4700-strong Instagram following needed a boost. <\/p>\n

\u201cExplode his posts with likes and comments. We need to start naming Tim Payne everywhere,\u201d Scarsini told his followers.<\/p>\n

Payne\u2019s social media following quickly surged to more than 4.8 million \u2014 surpassing the follower counts of New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, the All Blacks and the All Whites.<\/p>\n

A video shared on Instagram on Thursday showed Payne and Scarsini meeting for the first time after the viral movement catapulted the All Whites defender into the global spotlight.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe past week has been a crazy ride but thanks to @elscarso for everything he has done for myself, my family and NZ football,\u201d Payne in the post’s caption. <\/p>\n

In the video, Scarsini asked Payne what it was like when his phone began flooding with notifications.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t know what to feel, because it\u2019s so foreign to me,\u201d the All Whites No. 2 replied. <\/p>\n

\u201cStill processing, but it\u2019s amazing.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s good for myself, and New Zealand football too. It puts a light on us, which is a positive thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Payne also thanked Scarsini for his support by presenting him with a signed All Whites No. 2 jersey.<\/p>\n

The meeting comes after a difficult outing for the All Whites, who suffered a 4-0 defeat to Haiti<\/a> in a World Cup warm-up match yesterday.<\/p>\n

New Zealand’s final match before the World Cup is against European heavyweights England in Tampa Bay on Sunday morning, kick off 8am NZT.<\/p>\n

Watch the FIFA World Cup with TVNZ+<\/a> – All Whites buildup and tournament matches | all 104 World Cup games<\/p>\n

The morning’s headlines in 90 seconds, including Trump’s heated call with Netanyahu and New Zealand’s luckiest lotto player this year. (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"All Whites defender Tim Payne, who has become an unlikely social media sensation ahead of the FIFA World…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":460125,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[2965,2966,111,139,69,213],"class_list":["post-460124","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-all-whites","tag-fifa-world-cup","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460124","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=460124"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460124\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/460125"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=460124"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=460124"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=460124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}