[2] Born in Dornach, Huggel grew up and went to School in suburban Münchenstein, ten minutes from Basel and close to the borders of France and Germany.

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.

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.

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.

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.

In June 2007, Eintracht announced that Huggel was transferred back to his home club Basel, for an estimated fee of €400,000.

[6][7] 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.

Basel played their opening game of the season in Bern on 18 July 2008 against BSC Young Boys, which they won 2–1.

Basel entered the Champions League in the Second Qualifying Round and were drawn against IFK Göteborg of the Allsvenskan.

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.

[12] 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.

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.

He also appeared in Switzerland's final two matches during the Euro 2004 qualification campaign – a 4–1 defeat against Russia and 2–0 victory over the Republic of Ireland.

However, he was unable to prevent the Swiss having a disappointing tournament – they were eliminated at the group stage following defeats to France and England and a draw with Croatia.

He also missed the tournament after receiving a six-game ban for kicking a Turkish coach Mehmet Özdilek, after his nation's play-off victory over Turkey.

[1] He scored it, a header from a set piece, on 10 October 2009 against Luxembourg during the 3–0 away win in the 2010 World Cup qualifier.

At the end of the 2011–2012 season Huggel retired from active professional football and started working as assistant manager for the Basel U-21 team on 1 July 2012.