By Alberto Daniel Barboza
While Tim Payne continues to accumulate followers on his Instagram account; 4.8 million at the time of this publication, football fans are also pouring their support into New Zealand, which will participate in the third World Cup in its history.
The “Tim Payne phenomenon”, caused by the influencer Argentine Scarso, has risen to unimaginable levels. He went from being the least known player to the most famous and viral of the 2026 edition.
Even because he is 32 years old, analysts have added the New Zealander to the list of legends who will compete in his last World Cup, that is, with Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi and “Memo” Ochoa. Crazy!
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The All Whites Kiwispseudonym of the oceanic team, They qualified for the World Cup as champions of the continental qualifiers. Of course, in the final they faced New Caledonia, ranked 151 in the FIFA ranking (New Zealand is 85).
This means that, despite the impressive 3-0 to obtain the place, it is also true that they arrive as one of the most modest teams. But be careful with group G, which includes Egypt, Iran and Belgium.
Their first rival is Iran, which is in a surprising 21st place in the FIFA world rankings, and next they go against Egypt. If together with Tim Payne they achieve positive results, the match against Belgium; surely the most complicated, it would end up being a procedure.
It should be noted that the Oceanic team has never won a match in the two World Cups it has played, but curiously, in its last participation (South Africa 2010) it tied all three matches: against Italy, Slovakia and Paraguay, finishing third in group F.
In case of obtaining a historic classification to the 16th finals, His rival would be in groups H, K and L. This means that they would face any of the following countries, depending on how the groups are: Spain, Uruguay, Cape Verde, Saudi Arabia, Portugal, DR Congo, Uzbekistan, Colombia, England, Croatia, Ghana or Panama.
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