Who Is Tim Payne and why you should know him

If you still do not know who Tim Payne is, congratulations: your digital detox is working. Because people are talking about him everywhere. And that is coming from us, and soccer is not exactly our specialty.

We are talking about this New Zealand midfielder who, in just one week, went from having 4,000 followers on Instagram to more than 4 million. All thanks to the power of social media. A player who, although he was headed to the World Cup, was not very well known in the rest of the world, but thanks to the internet, that has changed. If not, just look at what happens when you search for his name on Google Trends:

Why Tim Payne has gone viral

It all started when Argentine content creator Valen Scarsini (@elscarso), who has one million followers and is a huge soccer fan, posted this video on Instagram:

 

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A post shared by Valen Scarsini (@elscarso)

The creator analyzed every national team and looked for the least-known player. The idea was to get as many people as possible to know Tim Payne before the World Cup, and so far, he is succeeding. He also encouraged his followers that, once their national team lost, they should cheer for the New Zealand player, turning him into the footballer who could unite every country in the world. Since we were all going to be rivals throughout the World Cup, we might as well have something that brings us together, right?

This video currently has more than 1.1 million likes, more than 32,000 comments, and over 14.7 million views on Instagram. On TikTok, it did not reach numbers quite that high, but it still has more than 300,000 likes, 5,000 comments, 22,000 saves, and 3 million views. Brands have not wanted to miss out on the conversation either. On Instagram, the spanish account from Duolingo (Duolingo en Español) commented on the post saying, “I know how to play soccer, invite me instead”; and on TikTok, Domino’s Pizza España pledged to rename its Tony Peperoni pizza “Tim Payne” if its comment reaches 4 million likes.

Once again, this shows that for brands, it is no longer only about how many posts you create or share in order to reach your audience, but also about being present in viral conversations to gain visibility.

What Tim Payne thinks about all this

What must it feel like to gain 4 million followers in just one week? Well, if it were me gaining them, and hardly anyone knows me, I probably would not be writing this; but in Tim Payne’s case, he is a professional soccer player. Soccer is what he does, and that is not going to change. Still, that does not mean he cannot be excited to receive support from millions of complete strangers in such an organic way right before a World Cup.

If playing in the World Cup is one of the biggest milestones in a soccer player’s career, imagine what it must be like to have the support of more than 4 million people. Especially when you play for a team that has never had the World Cup trophy in its hands.

Tim Payne replied to Valen with a video thanking him, in Spanish, as well as everyone who had followed him. He said that “he was still practicing his Spanish on Duolingo.” And of course, after that… Duolingo en Español showed up in the comments section once again. They were joined by the official Instagram account, saying that “you are gonna crush it”, as well as Dominos Mexico, KFC Ecuador, McDonald’s Chile, Canva’s Latin America account, NFL Mexico, and even Telemundo, the American television network that broadcasts Spanish-language content, among many others.

 

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A post shared by Tim Payne (@timpayne__)

But if I had to pick my favorite comment, it would be the one from a user who told him, “I have been your fan since I met you (yesterday).”

Tim Payne is trending, and Google knows it

If brands were already taking advantage of this viral moment, Google, the king of online search, was not going to be left behind. In addition to Google’s Spanish-language Instagram account commenting on the player’s thank-you post, the company has also made its search page a bit more dynamic.

Knowing that we were all going to start searching for Tim Payne like crazy, the tech giant has added soccer-themed animations that appear on your computer screen. When you search for the New Zealander’s name on Google, you will see a soccer ball with a speech bubble underneath that says “main character” and a button with a “celebration” icon that, when clicked, makes soccer balls appear all over the screen.

We do not know how far all of this will go, or how long we will keep talking about it. For now, the content creator who made Tim Payne (even more) famous is going to have the chance to meet him in person after the friendly match between New Zealand and Haiti. What will that encounter be like?Will he manage to be one of the most followed athletes on social media?