Two weeks before the start of the FIFA World Cup, New Zealand defender Tim Payne went viral thanks to Argentine influencer Valen Scarsini. Payne went to bed with just 5,000 followers across his social media accounts, the lowest tally of any player set to feature at the 2026 tournament. After Scarsini urged his own followers to act, Payne woke up with two million (a figure that has since climbed to 5.5 million).
The episode was an early sign of the influence certain individuals can wield, but once the tournament wrapped up across stadiums in North America, it was football itself, and the reach of the World Cup as an event, that once again proved its global pull.
One of the standout figures of the 2026 World Cup was Vozinha. The 40-year-old goalkeeper from Cape Verde, whose stunning saves and remarkable personal story captured attention throughout the tournament, gained more than 29 million followers during the event, having barely reached 30,000 before kickoff.
Yet despite leading the online rankings for most of the tournament, Vozinha did not finish on top.
As the competition entered its closing stages, the social media surge only intensified, and it was Erling Haaland, who guided Norway to the quarterfinals (where they lost to England after being overturned), who ultimately emerged as the biggest winner online.
With 32.1 million additional followers, the Manchester City striker rose from 40.6 million to 72.7 million on Instagram, according to figures compiled by the sports business website Sportico. While Haaland is already a superstar in Europe, he was less well known to American audiences before the tournament began. Through a string of quirky posts on Instagram, however, US fans got to know the Manchester City forward’s personality and took to him instantly, a shift reflected in an 80% jump in his following.
Haaland and Vozinha were the undisputed leading figures on social media, while Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi also featured in the top 10, albeit much further down the list, with Kylian Mbappe notably absent. France’s honour was salvaged by Michael Olise, while, remarkably, Brazil placed two players, Neymar and Endrick, inside the top 10.
The full top 10 list of players who gained the most Instagram followers during the 2026 World Cup:
- Erling Haaland (Norway): +32.1 million followers
- Vozinha (Cape Verde): +29.4 million
- Jude Bellingham (England): +12 million
- Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal): +11.4 million
- Lamine Yamal (Spain): +11 million
- Neymar (Brazil): +7.7 million
- Lionel Messi (Argentina): +7.5 million
- Gilberto Mora (Mexico): +6.6 million
- Michael Olise (France): +5.7 million
- Endrick (Brazil): +5.6 million
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