Paul Papp (born 11 November 1989) is a Romanian professional footballer who plays as a centre-back or a right-back for Liga I club Petrolul Ploiești. Club career Unirea Dej Born in Dej, Papp started out playing for hometown team Unirea. Botoşani In June 2008, Papp and teammate Adrian Boroştean were signed by FC Botoşani. 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 Dunărea 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 Botoşani. 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 Botoşani, many Liga I clubs linked the young defender. Vaslui In February 2009, Papp and teammate Marius Ştefoi 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 Ljubinković. Struggling to find himself in Vaslui's first-team, on 9 September Papp was loaned out to Farul Constanţa 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 Lăcătuș rejected any offer for the young defender. On 21 February, he was in the startup team against Gaz Metan Mediaş, being handed the no. 3 shirt. On 22 March, he scored his first three-points goal for Vaslui, against Rapid București. He scored his second goal on 10 May in a 2–1 win against Steaua București, Papp scoring Vaslui's second 8 minutes until the final whistle. He missed a single match during the 2009–10 campaign, due to yellow card accumulation, and helped his team reaching the 3rd place in Liga I, and the Romanian Cup final, eventually lost at the penalty shootout. He