Early years and Basel Huggel began his youth football with local club FC Münchenstein and came through the ranks between 1987 and 1996. He was loaned out to FC Arlesheim for two years (the price of which was a match ball), before completing his move to
FC Basel in 1998. In his first year in Basel, under Manager
Guy Mathez, he was solely a reserve player. Huggel made his debut for Basel on 6 December 1998, as he was transferred in during the 65th minute, in the 2–1 away win in the
Wankdorf Stadium against
Young Boys. In the
1998–99 season he made just three short appearances as
substitute in the first team. But during the following year in the
1999–2000 Nationalliga A, under new Manager
Christian Gross, he advanced into the starting team and played 34 of the 36 league games, scoring four goals. He scored his first goal for the team on 15 August 1999 as Basel won 2–0 against
Luzern at home in the
Schützenmatte Stadion. Huggel enjoyed his best campaign in 2000–01 when he scored eight goals in 29 league games from the centre of midfield. Huggel was part of the side that won the
Double in the year 2002. But he missed the Cup Final due to an injury. He first rose to international prominence with his displays for FC Basel during their
Champions League run in the
2002–03 season. A series of injuries had previously badly hampered his progress and the midfielder struggled in the face of stiff competition to win his way back into the side. However, he did play as Basel knocked
Liverpool out of the Champions League in 2002. Basel finished second in the
Swiss Super League that season and won the
Swiss Cup after beating
Neuchâtel Xamax 6–0 in the final, thus Huggel won his second Cup title. Huggel scored the first goal in that final. During the following year, Huggel had another successful season, scoring eight times in 32 games during the
2003–04 League season, as Basel won the
Swiss title back from
Grasshopper Club Zürich. Another year later Huggel won his third Championship title at the end of the
2004–05 season.
Eintracht Frankfurt In 2005, Huggel transferred to the newly promoted German club
Eintracht Frankfurt, in the
Bundesliga. In that season he played 28 Bundesliga games and, with the team, he reached the
DFB-Pokal Final in the
Olympic Stadium (
Berlin) against
Bayern Munich, but this ended in a 0–1 defeat. On 5 May 2007, he scored his first (and only) Bundesliga goal, in his 51st League game for Frankfurt, in the match against
Alemannia Aachen. In June 2007, Eintracht announced that Huggel was transferred back to his home club Basel, for an estimated fee of €400,000.
Return to Basel against
Celtic in the
Uhrencup in July 2007. Following Huggels return to Basel for the
2007–08 season, he became a constant fixture in the centre of midfield in their domestic and European encounters. That year he won the
Swiss Super League for the fourth time and the
Swiss Cup for a third. In the
2008 cup final on 6 April 2008, he scored Basel's fourth goal as they beat
AC Bellinzona 4–1. During Basel's
2008–09 season, Huggel showed his goal scoring qualities. Basel played their opening game of the season in
Bern on 18 July 2008 against
BSC Young Boys, which they won 2–1. Basel's goals were scored by
Marko Perović and Benjamin Huggel. Basel entered the
Champions League in the Second Qualifying Round and were drawn against
IFK Göteborg of the
Allsvenskan. The first leg was on 30 July 2008 at
Ullevi and finished 1–1. Huggel scored the Basel goal. The second leg was played on 6 August at
St. Jakob-Park. Basel came from behind twice to win 4–2, Huggel scored the equaliser to 1–1, and Basel qualified for the
UEFA Champions League Group Stages against
FC Barcelona,
FC Shakhtar Donetsk and
Sporting Clube de Portugal. In the League. despite remaining in first or second position for most of the season, Basel finished only in third position behind
FC Zürich and
Young Boys. Huggel scored ten league goals that season, only second behind
Scott Chipperfield, who scored 12 times.
Thorsten Fink was appointed as Basel's new manager on 9 June 2009. Basel entered the
Europa League in the second qualifying round playing against Andorrans
Santa Colma, against
KR Reykjavík of Iceland in the third round, against
FK Baku of Azerbaijan in the play-offs and they qualified for the Europa League group stage. FCB were then drawn into Group E alongside
A.S. Roma (
Serie A),
Fulham (
Premier League) and
CSKA Sofia (
Bulgarian A Professional Football Group). But they only finishing in third place. Huggel played all twelve Europa League matches. In domestic affairs Basel swept the board. Despite a poor start to the season they came back to win the title on the last day of the season in the match against favourites
BSC Young Boys at the
Stade de Suisse. Huggel played 32 League matches, scoring eleven goals. At the end of
Basel's 2009–10 season Huggel also won the Swiss Cup and yet again he scored a goal in the
cup final as they beat
Lausanne-Sport 6–0. At the end of the season, the goal that Huggel scored in the 2–2 away draw on 28 October 2009 against
Zürich was voted "Best European Goal of the Season 2009–2010" on guardian.co.uk, where it was chosen by a massive lot of over 84%. Huggel won his sixth league championship in 2011, playing 26 games and scoring three goals. Basel ended the
2010–11 Swiss Super League only one point ahead of
Zürich winning the last game of the season 3–0 against
Luzern in front of 37,500 spectators in the sold-out
St. Jakob-Park Stadium. Huggel missed that game due to a one match ban because he received his fourth yellow card of the season during the penultimate game away to
FC St. Gallen. The following season turned out to be his last as professional
footballer as he announced his retirement on 30 March 2012. and the
Swiss Cup with the club. He played 23 league games scoring four goals. He played four of the six cup games, scoring an away goal against
FC Schötz in the second round and a goal in the final. The final was played against
Luzern in the
Stade de Suisse,
Bern, and this goal meant that had scored a goal in each of the four Swiss Cup finals that he had played in. The game was drawn 1–1, but Basel won the title in a
penalty shoot-out. Basel also played very impressive away games in the
2011–12 UEFA Champions League and Huggel scored his first
Champions League goal on 2 November 2011, the equaliser, during a
group stage match away to
Benfica. Thus Basel remained undefeated in the away games, winning against
Oțelul Galați and drawing against
Manchester United and Benfica and they qualified for the knockout phase. In the
Round of 16 they were drawn against
Bayern Munich. Despite a 1–0 home win they lost the second leg in the
Allianz Arena and were knocked out. At the end of their
2011–12 season Huggel retired from his active career and on 1 July 2012 became
assistant to coach
Carlos Bernegger of the U-21 team. Huggel's last professional match came on 23 May 2012 when he was substituted out in the 73rd minute. Between the years 1998 to 2005 and again from 2007 to 2012 Huggel played a total of 536 games for Basel scoring a total of 102 goals. 297 of these games were in the
Swiss Super League, 30 in the
Swiss Cup, 74 in the European competitions (
Champions League,
Europa League and
UIC) and 135 were friendly games. He scored 62 goals in the domestic league, 9 in the cup, 8 in the European competitions and the other 23 were scored during the test games. Huggel won the Swiss championship seven times and the cup five times. ==International career==