Instagram, Tim Payne and the Disorder of the Phoenix
Friday, 19 June 2026
In professional sport, football transfer fees for a fullback are usually driven by tackle completions, interceptions, and aerial wins — not Instagram followers.
But for Wellington Phoenix and All Whites fullback Tim Payne, a viral social media explosion evolved into one of the quirkiest transfer sagas in New Zealand football history.
Wellington Phoenix accepted an undisclosed transfer fee from 48-time Paraguayan champions Club Olimpia for the 32-year-old right-back.
The move is subject to completing a medical after the World Cup, with the fee believed to be in the vicinity of $500,000.
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It comes after a whirlwind moment when South American content creator El Scarso identified Payne as the least-known player at the World Cup and urged followers to make him the tournament’s “main character”.
Payne had 4000 Instagram followers when he left for the World Cup. He now has around six million, with Phoenix Director of Football Shaun Gill recalling the club’s collective disbelief.
“I was sort of looking at it through a lens of, well, this is interesting, and it’s brilliant — one day it’s 2 million, the next day it’s 3 million… then he’s bigger than the All Blacks, and you go, wow.”
Inquiries from clubs in Argentina, Mexico, and Paraguay began arriving.
Of course, the club had transferred players before, but they were mostly up-and-comers such as Sarpreet Singh, who went to German giants Bayern Munich.
Negotiating the sale of a veteran defender to South America, in part based on internet fame, was uncharted territory.
“I’ve been doing this job for 15 years, and you think you get to the point where you’ve seen it all,” Gill told The Post. “Next thing, you have something that completely flips it upside down. It was completely new territory …”
“The weirdest part of all of this is that some random guy in South America decides to put Tim Payne on the world stage, and next thing he’s being sold by the Wellington Phoenix to one of the biggest clubs in Paraguay.
“Ultimately it’s a football transfer but, in saying that, the transfer fee that was paid definitely involves, I guess, a social media premium.”
So the absurdity of the situation has become a colourful addition to football folklore, with an Instagram account bridging the gap between Wellington and Asunción.
For Payne, it has paved the way for an unexpected career twilight adventure.
His partner is of Costa Rican descent and speaks Spanish, so a move to a football-mad, Spanish-speaking South American market has proved ideal.
“It’s a bit of a fairy tale for him, to be honest,” Gill says.
“At 32, he never thought he was going to get an opportunity to play overseas again … and now all of a sudden, he can take his family to a South American market and have an adventure.”
Payne has played 138 games for the Phoenix, and more than 50 for New Zealand.