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Soccer-New Zealand's Payne handling viral social media fame well, says bewildered coach

By Ian Ransom

June 2 (Reuters) - New Zealand defender Tim Payne is taking his sudden social media fame in his stride as he prepares for the World Cup, bringing unexpected ‌attention to the tournament's lowest-ranked nation.

In less than a week, Payne's Instagram account has exploded ‌from 4,715 followers to 4.2 million after an Argentine influencer decided he was the least-known player at the World Cup and urged his audience to give him likes, comments and follows.

New Zealand coach Darren Bazeley admitted he did not really understand the mechanics of viral social media but said Payne was handling it all well.

"I'm not very social media-savvy. From my understanding it's obviously a big deal, the numbers they're talking about is huge," Bazeley ‌told reporters in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

"I ⁠think Tim's dealing with it really well.

"He's probably the type of person who doesn't get over-excited with too much. He knows why he's here and what ⁠he wants to get from this tournament, from this tour.

"But I don't really understand the mechanics behind numbers and what that means.

"I'm sure the boys are giving him a bit of stick along the way. I think he's got a song and stuff like that."

Influencer Valen Scarsini, known as "elscarso" on Instagram and TikTok, lit the ‌fuse last week when he made a video encouraging his followers to show their support for the Wellington Phoenix defender.

Payne's Instagram audience has since outstripped most New Zealand athletes and public figures, including cricketer Kane Williamson (3.3 million followers) and the All Blacks rugby team (2.8m).

Payne posted a video last Friday thanking Scarsini in Spanish and saying it had been a "pretty crazy 48 hours".

His feed is peppered with good will messages ‌in multiple languages.

"Our GOAT. No Payne, no gain," wrote one follower.

Scarsini posted on his own Instagram feed that he was set to fly to Florida to watch the All Whites' World Cup warmup friendly against Haiti and would meet Payne ‌after the game later on Tuesday.

"Sometimes you think you won't see anything that's different. It's a game of football, 11 v 11, same pitch, same ball," said Bazeley.

"But we've come here and something different has happened with this."

New Zealand midfielder Marko Stamenic told reporters he was really happy for ‌Payne and was sure it would not go to his head.

"It honestly just shows the power of social media," he said.

"He's fully focused on what task we have here."

(Reporting by Ian Ransom in Melbourne; Editing by Peter Rutherford)

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