Heiber Eduardo Linares Martínez

Heiber Linares came back to the club that raised him.

That season elsewhere was at Gran Valencia FC , his first professional club, where he played seven matches in Venezuela's Primera División between 2021 and June 2022. He did not score, and picked up a single booking.

The return to Puerto Cabello was slow to produce minutes. Four league appearances in 2022, then six in 2024, the year he settled into the starting line-up under coach Iván Fernández . The breakthrough came in 2025 : 22 league matches, with a goal and an assist, plus six games in the Copa Sudamericana . He was booked four times that year.

Linares is a left-footed defender who is used mainly at left-back, though he has also been deployed as a left-sided centre-back and further forward on the left flank. That versatility, along with the depth he offers going forward, is what has kept him in the side.

In September 2024, during the Clausura, Puerto Cabello put together a run of three matches without defeat and without conceding.

The 2026 season has brought 13 league appearances so far and another four in the Copa Sudamericana, without a goal. Across all his time with the senior team he has made 52 league appearances, with one assist, nine yellow cards and no red ones. No individual awards, and no team titles at either club.