He accepted the offer of the Football Association of Albania to become head coach of Albania in December 2002. Before accepting the role Briegel had had various other job offers as his coaching experience, however limited, had been that of assistant to Karl-Heinz Feldkamp at Beşiktaş J.K. in Turkey, and the successor of Feldkamp at Beşiktaş J.K. (from September 1999 to 30 June 2000) and further on top of coaching at fellow Turkish Super League team Trabzonspor (7 November 2001 – 30 June 2002). However, he went ahead and accepted the Albania job with very much success for four years (2002–2006). To date he is the most successful coach of Albania of all times because of the number of points per match in the two qualifiers UEFA Euro 2004 Qualifications and the FIFA World Cup 2006 Qualification. He resigned from the role on 9 May 2006, after the extension of the contract offered him by the Albanian Federation was linked to the results that would be obtained.