Martinez comes from the southern town of Bahia Blanca, a place particularly known for its love for basketball. Like his younger brother Jano, the Argentina international himself could have had a career in that sport, but decided instead to follow his father Mario and his older brother Alan and stick with football. Ever since making that choice, he has adopted the mantra that says if you want to be different on the pitch, you have to be different off it. He has always taken it very seriously. A centre-back turned forward, he was only 15 when he made his senior debut with Liniers, scoring in his very first game. But that was not the most impressive thing about it. What surprised his team-mates was the level of discipline he already presented at that age. "In Bahia, there was a TV channel that broadcast our matches, so I used to go there to ask for the videotapes. I had to buy them because they weren't going to give them to me for free," he revealed. "It was my dream to become a professional footballer. Now it's different, of course, I get everything edited and sent to me. Some people are surprised by the way I am or the way I think. But for me, it feels completely natural." It's no wonder that when Racing spotted him a while later, they took him right away - no trial needed. "He's one of the most incredible professionals I've ever seen," said Huerta, now a technical secretary at Cerro Porteno in Paraguay. "He was the complete package – a very strong mentality, very serious, very committed to work, from the so-called 'invisible trainings' to taking care of himself – he doesn't smoke, doesn't drink alcohol, doesn't drink Coca-Cola. "Our psychologist Cecilia Contarino used to run tests to measure players' concentration. The scores ranged from nought to 100. She'd tell me that 60 to 70 was already acceptable for a high-performance athlete. Some players got 30 or 40 though. And this kid? He broke the record. He scored 98."