FIFA World Cup 2026: Overnight social media sensations ft Vozinha

CHENNAI: The World Cup is all about the stories, and certainly the 2026 World Cup hasn’t disappointed one bit, as the tournament has witnessed the surreal tale of Vozinha. The 40-year-old keeper has gone from 20,000 followers to millions overnight, after his seven-save show against Spain in the country’s first Cup encounter. 

While some were organic, the others were on the back of some content creator-driven campaigns. Here’s a few of the top social media gainers through this edition of the World Cup: 

Vozinha (Cabo Verde)

In terms of overnight sensations, there aren’t too many better stories than Cabo Verde’s 40-year-old goalkeeper, Vozinha. After his stellar show against Spain, where he recorded seven saves, the goalkeeper’s Instagram account saw a sensational increase, from 20,000 followers to 16.7 million.

Tim Payne (New Zealand)

The story behind Tim Payne’s rapid rise on Instagram is an interesting one, it didn’t come on the back of his performance but on the back of a social media campaign. Argentinian influencer Valen Scarsini was the reason behind Payne’s multi-fold Instagram followers’ increase, as he ran a campaign which boosted the New Zealand defender’s followers to 5.9 million.

Eloy Room (Curacao)

The flavour of the World Cup season has been goalkeepers, and Curacao’s Eloy Room is another page of that story. Room recorded 15 saves in Curacao’s 0-0 draw against Ecuador—the most saves in a 90-minute World Cup encounter. As was the case with Vozinha, overnight, Room’s Instagram followers went surging up, reaching 1.1 million and growing from a mere 100,000.

Kai Trewin (Australia)

Social media influencers have been quite kind this World Cup, and another successful campaign run was of boosting Australia’s defender, Kai Trewin, who had 3,000 followers before the start of the World Cup. Football content creator RubikayTV made a plea to his followers, as the Australian had the lowest followers count for any player at this year’s World Cup. The result? 1.28 million followers and growing.