{"id":1795,"date":"2026-06-19T17:55:57","date_gmt":"2026-06-19T09:55:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/?p=1795"},"modified":"2026-06-19T17:55:59","modified_gmt":"2026-06-19T09:55:59","slug":"new-zealands-payne-joins-paraguayan-powerhouse-after-instagram-fame","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/19\/new-zealands-payne-joins-paraguayan-powerhouse-after-instagram-fame\/","title":{"rendered":"New Zealand&#8217;s Payne joins Paraguayan powerhouse after Instagram fame"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1000\" height=\"667\" src=\"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/image-24.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1796\" srcset=\"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/image-24.png 1000w, https:\/\/mktynews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/image-24-300x200.png 300w, https:\/\/mktynews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/image-24-768x512.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>New Zealand&#8217;s World Cup social media sensation Tim Payne has capitalised on his newfound fame, with the defender announcing on Friday that he has signed for Paraguayan powerhouse Club Olimpia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>His current club, Wellington Phoenix, confirmed his sale to the 48-time champions of Paraguay for an undisclosed fee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The versatile 32-year-old shot to social media stardom in the lead-up to the World Cup after Argentinian influencer El Scarso sought to boost the following of the tournament&#8217;s &#8220;least followed&#8221; player.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Payne&#8217;s Instagram following grew from just 4,000 to more than five million in the space of a week, and now sits just shy of six million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;This wasn&#8217;t an easy decision,&#8221; Payne said in a post on Friday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Seven years at Wellington Phoenix. 149 games. To the fans, my teammates, and all those who have supported me throughout my career, the highs and the lows, thank you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;To test myself at the very top of South American football, the Copa Libertadores and the Copa Sudamericana, is one of the most incredible opportunities I could have asked for as a professional.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>El Scarso, whose real name is Valen Scarsini, was among the first to comment, saying: &#8220;Best of luck brother.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Payne started New Zealand&#8217;s first match of the World Cup, a 2-2 draw with Iran in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>New Zealand next play Egypt and Belgium in Group G.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>New Zealand&#8217;s World Cup social media sensation Tim Payne has capitalised on his newfound fame, with the defender<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1796,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1795","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1795","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1795"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1795\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1797,"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1795\/revisions\/1797"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1796"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1795"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1795"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}