His coaching career took off at Belgian club
Berchem Sport, which he guided to the championship of the Belgian fourth and third divisions. After this success, Brys took over the first-division club
Germinal Beerschot. In his first year, with the smallest competition budget, Germinal finished 7th, although 75% of Belgian coaches predicted that the club would be relegated. In May 2005, during his second year, Brys took Germinal to a 2–1 victory over
Club Brugge in the
Belgian Cup, the first and only prize Germinal would win in its history. Germinal participated in the
2005–06 UEFA Cup but was eliminated by
Olympique de Marseille on penalty kicks. In 2006–07, Brys coached
Royal Mouscron-Péruwelz, where he was fired despite finishing in seventh place. He subsequently coached in Holland at
FC Eindhoven and
Den Bosch. In 2010, Brys signed for two years with
KV Mechelen. In his first year, the club attained the highest point total in its history. In 2012, Brys managed Saudi club
Al-Faisaly FC. He reached the semi-finals of the
Crown Prince Cup and became group winner of the
GCC Champions League. In his second season, however, he was fired and took over the Club
Al-Raed for the last four games of the competition. He managed to keep them in the First League with two wins and two draws. Following a stint of over three seasons, Brys was finally sacked at
OH Leuven in October 2023 and retired, settling with his wife in his home in
Crete. Six months later however, Brys signed for
Cameroon, following in the footsteps of fellow Belgian manager
Hugo Broos who had already lead the team in 2016 and 2017. Brys also stated he had denied offers from other African nations such as
Ghana and
Tunisia. On 1 December, Brys was sacked days before the
2025 Africa Cup of Nations, with the Cameroonian Football Federation accusing him of "subterfuge and unprofessionalism" due to Cameroon failing to qualify for the
2026 FIFA World Cup. However, he denied being dismissed, insisting he was still the legitimate head coach after submitting his own AFCON squad list, which was later rejected by the
federation. == Managerial statistics ==