Paul Papp

Paul Papp (born 11 November 1989) is a Romanian footballer who plays as a centre-back or right-back for CS Universitatea Craiova and the Romania national team.

Club Career

Born in Dej, Papp started out playing for hometown team Unirea.

Botosani

In June 2008, Papp and teammate Adrian Borostean were signed by FC Botosani. At age 18, he wore the captain's armband, right on his league debut for his new team. He led his team to a 2–1 win against Dunarea Giurgiu. Two months later he led his team to a historical qualification to Romanian Cup's eighth finals, the highest performance for the past 20 years for Botosani. Despite his team's up and down half season, Papp was voted the best central defender from Liga II by the reader of liga2.ro website In mid-2009 rumours began circulating that the club were in dire financial trouble and that new manager Alin Bejan would be forced to part with his star players for a substantial amount of cash. Although he was not on the transfer list, following his solid performances for Botosani, many Liga I clubs linked the young defender.

Vaslui

In February 2009, Papp and teammate Marius Stefoi were signed by Vaslui that acquired 85% of the players rights. Papp made his Vaslui first-team debut on 17 May 2009 in a match against CS Otopeni as a late substitute for Marko Ljubinkovic. Struggling to find himself in Vaslui's first-team, on 9 September Papp was loaned out to Farul Constanta in order to gain experience. Papp's career began to take-off when he was recalled from his loan due to his progress at Farul and was pushed into the first-team. On 1 February 2010, Papp was seen as a straight replacement for Dinamo captain Tamaș, after his departure, but Marius Lacatuș rejected any offer for the young defender. On 21 February, he was in the startup team against Gaz Metan Medias, being handed the no. 3 shirt. On 22 March, he scored his first three-points goal for Vaslui, against Rapid București. He scored hi