“You often have to announce”
Boris Becker criticizes Germans for lack of humor
Updated on July 31, 2025 – 6:43 p.m.Reading time: 2 min.
Boris Becker was born in Germany. With the mind of his compatriots, however, he cannot always make friends. He sees himself differently.
Tennis legend Boris Becker sees his German compatriots a lack of humor. “I am known for my humor. Not every German can say that,” said Becker at an appointment of his sponsor Fenster.com in Berlin on Thursday. “I noticed that this property has already been lost here,” said Becker.
“It’s such a thing with the humor,” said Becker. “Sometimes you really have to announce that you can laugh and that it is not serious. Sometimes it is a bit difficult in this country,” he said. That has brought him into problems one time or another. “I was often not understood whether I said it ironically or seriously,” he recalls. Becker has been living abroad for years, initially in England, in Italy.
The commercials for his sponsor, which he made together with his wife Lilian de Carvalho and the long -time Bundesliga player Stefan Effenberg, also try to use humor. For Becker, however, the first -time cooperation with his wife was particularly important. “It was something special to open my wife professionally,” he said. De Carvalho also rely on his experience. “She also says some sentences in German, which is not her mother tongue,” said Becker appreciatively.
Becker and De Carvalho have been married since September 2024, their first child is currently expecting. A fact that makes Becker happy: “I am a bit older, I have experienced many ups and downs. Everyone is already falling, it is crucial that you get up again,” he said of his previous curriculum vitae, and then made a declaration of love for his partner: “I have a good environment, right friends and most important: the right woman. With all of this I can’t complain.”