[1][2] He went to play for Dinamo București, making his Divizia A debut on 1 March 1997 when he came as a substitute and replaced Cătălin Hîldan in a 1–0 loss against Gloria Bistrița.

[1][2][4] In 2001, Codrea moved abroad, signing with Serie B club Genoa for a transfer fee of 2.75 million $, being teammates with fellow Romanians Claudiu Niculescu, Adrian Mihalcea and Valentin Năstase.

[1][2][3][11][12][13] In January 2004 he was loaned by Palermo together with Franco Brienza at Serie A team Perugia in exchange for the transfer of Fabio Grosso.

[1][3] Paul Codrea played 44 games and scored one goal at international level for Romania, making his debut on 15 November 2000 under coach László Bölöni in a friendly which ended with a 2–1 victory against FR Yugoslavia.

[21][23][24][25] Paul Codrea went to play four games at the 2010 World Cup qualifiers and made his last appearance for the national team on 3 March 2010 in a friendly which ended with a 2–0 loss against Israel.