Forget the football pitch, Instagram is the pre-World Cup battleground for Australia, New Zealand and … social media influencers.
Socceroos defender Kai Trewin has become the latest player to be caught up in an Instagram trend that aims to make relatively low-profile World Cup squad members famous before the tournament begins.
As a result of an internet campaign that hopes to make the 25-year-old “the Cristiano Ronaldo of the World Cup” Trewin has amassed 100,000 new followers overnight.
Last week South American influencer Valen Scarsini – known as “El Scarso” – created a challenge to make the least-followed player heading to the World Cup famous, and encouraged his community to follow New Zealand defender Tim Payne. Since being called out, Payne has gone from a meagre 5,000 followers to more than 4.6 million at the time of writing.
Trewin, who boasted just 3,000 followers on his Instagram account, was discovered by another football content creator, RubikayTV, who disputed Payne’s status as the least followed player. RubikayTV set a challenge to his own followers to get behind the Australian player.
“Tim Payne is not the least-known player at the World Cup; that honour belongs to Kai Trewin, Australia’s wingback,” RubikayTV said. “If Tim Payne is Messi, why not make Trewin the Cristiano Ronaldo of the World Cup?”
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Trewin, 25, was on Monday included in Tony Popovic’s final 26-man World Cup squad, having made his debut for the Socceroos in 2025. He began his career at Brisbane Roar, where he quickly cemented himself in the side before making a move to Melbourne City in 2024, making 47 appearances for the two-time A-League champions.
In January this year, Trewin swapped Melbourne City for fellow City Football Group club New York City and has since made 18 appearances for the MLS side, coming up against the likes of Lionel Messi, Rodrigo De Paul and Thomas Müller.
Payne, who plays for Wellington Phoenix in the A-League, surpassed the All Blacks’ Instagram account to become the second most followed New Zealand athlete behind UFC fighter Israel Adesanya. He is closing in on having more followers than there are people in New Zealand – about 5.3 million. Payne’s newfound fans have even created a song about him.
While Trewin is yet to respond to his followers, Payne posted on Instagram on 29 June, thanking Scarso and his new followers. “It’s been a pretty crazy 48 hours to say the least,” he wrote. “I just wanted to also express that I’m very grateful to be representing my country at this World Cup, and I appreciate all the love from around the world. Muchas gracias.”
The newfound spotlight does not appear to have changed Payne; since his elevation to global celebrity, he has posted just three times – the video of thanks and several photos of him training with the All Whites.
New Zealand fell to a disappointing 4-0 defeat to Haiti in a warm-up on Tuesday, in which Payne came off at half-time. Fans will be able to catch him in World Cup action when the All Whites play Iran on 16 June, while Trewin’s Socceroos open their campaign against Turkey two days earlier on 14 June.
