Costel Câmpeanu was born on 14 May 1965 in Bacău and started to play football in the 1986–87 Divizia C season at Viitorul Gheorgheni.
[1][2][3] Afterwards he went to play for the team from his native town, SC Bacău where on 26 August 1987 he made his Divizia A debut in a 4–2 away loss in front of Argeș Pitești.
[1][2][3] After two years he went to play for Dinamo București where in his first season he helped the club win The Double, being used by coach Mircea Lucescu in 10 league games, as the team's first option for the goalkeeper position was Bogdan Stelea.
[1][2][3][5][6][7][8][9][10] During his period spent with The Blue Vampires, the team was heavily involved in match fixing under the club's influential president Jean Pădureanu, Câmpeanu having to intentionally make mistakes to concede goals, years later stating in interviews that he regrets doing so.
[2][3] In 1999 he returned for a short period at Ceahlăul Piatra Neamț where the head coach was Viorel Hizo, whom he knew from his period spent at Dinamo when Hizo was the assistant coach of Florin Halagian in order to play in their 1999 Intertoto Cup campaign which included a 1–1 against Juventus.