World Cup 2026: will the 'viral stars' be able to turn success on social media into fortune?

But, for communications expert Mike Serazio, this possibility may be fleeting. "It's viral," he explains. "It grows very quickly and falls just as quickly." Professor of social networks and digital communication Brooke Duffy, from Cornell University, in the United States, says that influencers with millions of followers can receive payments that exceed six figures. Your prominent social media presence can lead to partnerships with brands and sponsors who pay for individual posts. “Followers are a form of currency that is important today,” explains Duffy. "More followers often translate into higher income." Another path to stardom New Zealand's Tim Payne during the 2026 World Cup first round match against Belgium EPA/Shutterstock via BBC Before the start of the tournament, New Zealand defender Tim Payne earned the nickname of the World Cup's "least known player" thanks to an Argentine influencer. Valen Scarsini is known on the internet as "elscarso". He shared a video calling on hundreds of thousands of followers to promote Payne's profile online. Payne became involved in the campaign, posting more and interacting with the influencer. And, in a few days, the player went from around 5 thousand to close to six million followers on Instagram — more than the population of New Zealand, which is just over 5.3 million people, as the player himself highlights. Unlike the case of Cape Verdean Vozinha, Payne's recent fame was not due to his performance on the playing field. This is an increasingly frequent phenomenon in the sporting world, according to Mike Serazio. He is a professor at Boston College, in the United States, and has researched the connections between communication and sport. “We have had, in the last five to 10 years, the rise of sports stars who are the result of marketing, of followers on social media,” he explains. "His fame is not proportional to his sporting talents." Serazio highlights that any player who makes it to his country's national team has great talents. But in the past, athletes needed to be among the best to do television commercials or appear on product packaging. "You simply don't need mass communication like you used to and athletes understand that", continues the professor. "Athletes go to social media and use it with the ambition of cultivating followers, getting brand deals, making money and leveraging their popularity." Will the fame last after the World Cup? Serazio believes that virality directs the direction of sports audiences. “Your performance throughout the game matters less than having a single moment that works well, that reverberates across the viral reaches of social media,” he explains. "Viral momentum is a more valuable currency. It matters more than the match itself." The question is whether an athlete who participates in the World Cup and gains millions of new admirers can turn this success into a career beyond the four lines of the pitch. “You have a window of attention there,” continues the professor. "No one knew who Cape Verde's goalkeeper was... and I don't think they will know who he is after the World Cup is over." "Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Neymar, Mbappé, after they retire, will still be able to sign contracts," according to Serazio. These, according to him, are not "athletes who just have one big moment that can propel them beyond their career." An example of an athlete who successfully took advantage of her audience on social media is the American rugby player Ilona Maher. Her popularity soared during the Olympic Games in 2024 in Paris, France. Maher has her own podcast, is a brand ambassador, modeled for Sports Illustrated magazine and came second on the TV series Dancing with the Stars. Maher also won the ESPY Award (the most important sports award in the United States) as Breakthrough Athlete of 2025. For Duffy, there are long-term career opportunities for new social media stars. But it's difficult to calculate exactly how much money they can make from it. She explains that the price paid for sponsored posts on social media does not have as strict standards as in traditional media, such as television commercials. "There are very few indications of what a reasonable income would be," continues the professor. "These are individuals whose careers, until now, have been linked to football. So it's curious to imagine how they will cope with the variability of a nebulous ecosystem like the digital media economy." The cultural capital of these viral World Cup stars is now at an all-time high. But what this means for the players' futures may depend on how they manage to keep their new admirers engaged after the tournament is over.