"Samuel Martínez starts for Colombia against Brazil in tonight's Sudamericano Sub-17 semi-final, and he's attracting interest," Jacobs wrote. "Plenty of European scouts present at the match, including from Chelsea, Liverpool and City Football Group."
Three months later, it was Liverpool who won the race, agreeing a five-year deal reported at around €1m that saw off competition from Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund, Manchester City and a clutch of other suitors.
Martínez will train at the LFC Academy from the 2027-28 season, once he turns 18 — Atlético Nacional retaining a sell-on percentage and his services for a full year of senior football in Medellín first.
The numbers behind that April tournament explain the fuss. Conmebol's own data had Martínez as the most effective dribbler at the entire Under-17 championship, completing 10 of 17 attempted take-ons — a 59 per cent success rate, the best of anyone who tried more than 15. He set up goals in Colombia's 3-0 semi-final win over Brazil and their 4-0 final rout of Argentina, wearing the number 10 for a team that ended a 33-year wait for the Sudamericano title.
"We knew he could do something like what he did at the Sudamericano, because we've been following him for a long time," said Daniel Neumüller, Martínez's agent.
"We know what he's capable of, and he has an emotional stability that's essential at this age. He's a very mature kid."
Neumüller has also been candid about the family behind that maturity: "Samuel has the fortune of a united, stable family that has supported him since he was a baby."
Martínez himself preferred to credit the collective.
"We knew it was going to be a tough game, but we trusted what we'd been working on. We went out and played our game, and it paid off," he said of the final win over Argentina, before turning to the mood inside the squad that got him there: "It's a group that likes to mess around, but works hard and sticks together."
Asked how things stood back home once the celebrations died down, he kept it simple: "Everything's good, thank God. I'm really happy about everything that's happening, about my family's joy and all of Colombia's. My job is to keep going with the process at Nacional — focus on that, on training every day so things keep going well."
That stability traces back to Tuluá, in Colombia's Valle del Cauca, where Martínez is the son of former professional forward Jairo "El Indio" Martínez, who played for Independiente Santa Fe and the now-defunct Cortuluá — a different kind of player to his son, whose game is built on box-to-box range rather than a striker's instinct for the area.
Samuel's own path began at the Talentos GV academy, run by ex-Colombia international Gustavo Victoria, before a formative year in Miami with West Pines.
"I started at Talentos and then went to Miami," Martínez said on Win Sports' Medio Tiempo. "Then I came back and presented myself at Nacional at 12. I played the Babyfútbol and the national Under-13 tournament, went back to Talentos, and returned to the Verde for good at 14."
He has since worn the captain's armband across several of Nacional's youth categories, a role his club has pointed to as evidence of a maturity beyond his years.
He remains without a signed senior contract at Nacional even now, a detail he's addressed with characteristic calm.
"With Nacional I still don't have a signed contract, but a very good relationship with them," he said. Club communications director Juan Camilo Vasseur has echoed that patience publicly: "We've respected Samuel's representative, given him the space, and we've backed Samuel through all the speculation that's come out."
On the ball, the reference points keep multiplying. The Athletic has pointed to his slender frame, upright running style and deceptive change of pace over short distances as reminiscent of Kaká, while Marca described him as a modern, box-to-box midfielder blending South American technique with the physical demands of the European game — versatile enough, in their assessment, to play as an organising number six or push on as an interior with attacking intent, and to slot into either a 4-3-3 or a 4-2-3-1.
Martínez's own description of his game is simpler: an eye for the give-and-go, a willingness to carry the ball at defenders, and — increasingly — a defensive discipline that wasn't always there.
What the tape adds to that self-assessment is a right foot that does most of the heavy lifting and a preference for driving into the inside-right channel rather than staying wide, closer in profile to a young James Rodríguez than to a wide, one-footed winger — the vision to pick a pass out matching the willingness to beat a man and go alone.
For now, Neumüller insists there's no rush, even with Bayern Munich still circling long after losing out on the transfer itself.
"The idea is to take him to a club with a clear project for young players, like Bayern," he said earlier this year, before Liverpool's move was finalised — a plan that, for now, has been overtaken by events.
"This is only just beginning, it needs to be handled calmly," he added. "We're not going to make hasty decisions."
The immediate targets are close to home: a first-team debut for Nacional, and a place in Colombia's squad for the Under-17 World Cup in Qatar. Anfield can wait its turn.