Battle of football influencers delivers Australia’s Kai Trewin 100k Instagram followers

The Guardian Sport Wednesday 03 June 2026, 07:07 UTC By Jack Larkin 1 min read

Key Points

Socceroos defender subject of viral campaign to make him ‘Cristiano Ronaldo of World Cup’ as New Zealand’s Tim Payne surpasses All BlacksForget 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.

Socceroos defender subject of viral campaign to make him ‘Cristiano Ronaldo of World Cup’ as New Zealand’s Tim Payne surpasses All Blacks

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.

Australia (LOCATION) Kai Trewin (PERSON) Instagram (ORG) Socceroos (PERSON) World Cup’ (EVENT) New Zealand’s (LOCATION) Tim Payne (PERSON) BlacksForget (ORG) pre-World Cup (EVENT) New Zealand (LOCATION) World Cup (EVENT)

Originally published by The Guardian Sport Read original →

Battle of football influencers delivers Australia’s Kai Trewin 100k Instagram followers

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