This insights post is a summary of the blog post published by Alurralde, Jasper + Asociados. View the full insight at: El algoritmo de la pelota: Cómo las pantallas fabrican los nuevos ídolos del mercado
In today’s soccer, everything is perfectly structured: television rights, brand contracts, and the schedules of the biggest stars. However, amid this ultra-professional and predictable landscape, a “parallel tournament” has begun to unfold. One that isn’t played out on the field or organized in FIFA’s offices, but rather driven by screens, interactions, and viral phenomena.
It’s not just about “talking about social media” for the sake of it. The real paradigm shift lies in how people discovered they have the power to create their own idols in real time, disrupting market dynamics. While the official tournament continues with Messi breaking records, fans have begun to “adopt” jerseys and players from the underdog teams, seeking authentic stories. Today, audience interest can divert attention from the main headlines to unexpected corners, and the market has no choice but to react.
Recent cases speak for themselves. Take the craze surrounding Tim Payne: an Argentine influencer set out to find the national team player with the fewest followers in the tournament—New Zealand—and, in a matter of days, the player’s follower count skyrocketed from 5,000 to nearly 6 million, even surpassing the campaign’s initiator.
Something similar happened with Vozinha, the Cape Verdean goalkeeper, who captivated fans at the age of 40. Following his stellar performance in the group stage, his Instagram account went from fewer than 50,000 followers to more than 27 million (and counting).
This “other World Cup” doesn’t replace the traditional one—it coexists with it. Goals and results continue to determine the champions, and while that’s happening, millions of users are competing in another contest running parallel to it: the battle for attention. Against this backdrop, every click, every share, and every viral story can reshape the soccer business landscape much faster than any marketing plan could have imagined. Brands, clubs, and national teams can no longer limit themselves to following a public relations playbook. In a highly planned soccer landscape, people’s spontaneity has shown that the market always finds a new channel to reinvent and expand itself.
If fans can now propel global stars to fame in a matter of days, who truly holds the power today to build value in soccer—the institutions or the algorithms?
