Tim Payne couldn't wait to give Valen Scarsini a big hug and tell him thanks a million.
Nearly 5 million, actually. New social media followers, that is.
The New Zealand defender met the influencer and content creator from Argentina on Wednesday after Scarsini — known as "El Scarso" — asked his fans last week to help kick up support for the soccer standout while calling him the "least-known" player at the World Cup in the United States, Canada and Mexico based on his small social media following.
Well, since that request, the 32-year-old Payne went from just under 5,000 followers on Instagram to more than 5 million, making him a viral sensation.
Scarsini watched Payne's New Zealand squad — known as the All Whites — lose 4-0 to Haiti in a friendly in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on Tuesday night. The next morning, the social media influencer met Payne at the team hotel in Boca Raton.
“My friend!” Scarsini shouted as he walked through a door and saw Payne. “How are you?”
“I'm good, bro, yourself?” asked a smiling Payne as he gave him a big hug. “Lovely to meet you.”
Payne also said, “Cómo estás?” — Spanish for “How are you?” — and then jokingly told Scarsini that's basically the extent of his Spanish vocabulary.
Payne thanked Scarsini “for everything” and described the entire experience as “very crazy.”
“I didn't know what to feel, you know, because it's so foreign to me," Payne said. "Still processing, but it's amazing. And I appreciate you doing it for me, you know?”
Scarsini asked Payne what it's like to have this huge boost in fame happen just before the World Cup begins.
“It’s obviously good for myself and New Zealand football, too," Payne said. "It puts a light on us, which is a positive thing, but at the same time, for me, I don’t change. I’m still the person I am. I just keep trying to do what I do, which is play football and trying to perform for my country.”
Scarsini said Payne should visit him in Argentina someday, and he would also one day go to New Zealand. Payne then gave him an All Whites jersey with his No. 2 on it and signed it before the two posed for photos and hugged again.
New Zealand opens its Group G play at the World Cup against Iran on June 15 in Inglewood, California. Belgium and Egypt are also in the group. New Zealand, playing at the World Cup for the third time after qualifying in 1982 and 2010, has yet to win a match.
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AP Sports Writer Steve McMorran in Wellington, New Zealand, contributed to this report.
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