![\"Olimpia's](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/paraguay-soccer-payne-HLFPEONHHNG27APBXSVPJQVPXY.jpg\")
<\/p>\nJust a few months ago, few football fans outside Aotearoa knew Tim Payne\u2019s name. Now they are bidding thousands of dollars for the jersey off his back.<\/p>\n
The shirt Payne wore in his debut for Club Olimpia, a Paraguayan football powerhouse, has become a coveted piece of match-worn memorabilia since the club put it up for auction online five days ago. <\/p>\n
With bidding closing yesterday, the leading offer has climbed above 21 million in Paraguay\u2019s currency, the guarani, equivalent to around NZ$6000.<\/p>\n
It’s the latest development in the unlikely rise of the 32-year-old defender, who entered the World Cup with just over 4000 followers on Instagram and emerged as one of the tournament\u2019s biggest social media sensations.<\/p>\n
Before representing New Zealand at the World Cup, Payne spent most of his career out of the limelight, playing for low-profile clubs in New Zealand and Australia. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Olimpia’s Tim Payne, of New Zealand, kicks the ball to score during his debut for the club at a Paraguayan soccer league match against Rubio Nu in Asuncion, Paraguay (Source: Associated Press)<\/p>\n
He also spent two years with England\u2019s Blackburn Rovers but never made a major appearance because of work-permit problems.<\/p>\n
Then Argentine football influencer Valen Scarsini, known online as El Scarso, went searching for what he called the World Cup\u2019s \u201cleast-known soccer player.\u201d <\/p>\n
Scarsini settled on Payne, whose Instagram account had 4,715 followers at the time, and encouraged his more than 2 million followers across Instagram, TikTok and YouTube to follow Payne, flood his posts with supportive comments and mention his name everywhere.<\/p>\n
Within days, Payne’s following skyrocketed, eventually topping 5.4 million.<\/p>\n
The All Whites defender spoke to Breakfast about becoming a household name before a ball had even been kicked at the FIFA World Cup. (Source: Breakfast)<\/p>\n
The surge in online fame helped carry Payne to Paraguay, where he signed with national club champion Olimpia on a one-year deal in June, ending a seven-year stint with Wellington Phoenix in the Australian A-League.<\/p>\n
Payne gave legions of new fans another reason to cheer him during his August 2 debut against Asunci\u00f3n club Rubio \u00d1u, scoring minutes after coming off the bench to help Olimpia win 5-0.<\/p>\n
Now the signed jersey from that match is drawing the sort of interest usually reserved for far more established names \u2014 though the leading offer remains a far cry from the millions of dollars paid for jerseys worn by Argentine superstar Lionel Messi and other football greats.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know exactly what it means to wear these stripes and play in this shirt, and that’s why I want to give it to a true Olimpista (Olimpia fan),” Payne said in a video launching the auction.<\/p>\n
Michelle Peters said the past few weeks had been\u00a0overwhelming, and heartwarming following\u00a0her partner\u2019s newfound social\u00a0media stardom.\u00a0\u00a0 (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Just a few months ago, few football fans outside Aotearoa knew Tim Payne\u2019s name. Now they are bidding…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":570262,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2965,111,43,139,69],"class_list":["post-570261","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-all-whites","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/570261","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=570261"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/570261\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/570262"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=570261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=570261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=570261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}