Former Wimbledon champion Boris Becker’s Majorcan mansion has been taken oven by a naked hippie squatter after the tennis star abandoned it following his bankruptcy last year.
Bearded German guru Georg Berres claims he only found out it was the former World No 1 tennis player’s holiday home when German media turned up last week.
Berres says he plans to give the empty £13 million villa near the rural town of Arta in north-east Majorca a new lease of life – and claims to have already cut weeds and picked up rubbish around the property along with his hippie commune friends.
Former Wimbledon champion Boris Becker’s Majorcan mansion has been taken oven by a naked hippie squater after the tennis star abandoned it following his bankruptcy last year
Hippie Berres, thought to be a 44-year-old former carpenter, has moved into the plush home along with a with a number of helper friends and has wasted no time sharing videos of himself wandering through the palatial grounds and sunbathing.
Filming himself walking through the now unkempt grounds, Berres says: ‘It’s like nobody loved this place.
‘How can it come to this, I ask, that something like this is a habitat for wasps, geckos and spiders. Something’s gone wrong there. Someone’s listened to the wrong advice.’
Fifty-year-old former Wimbledon champion Becker is said to have earned in the region of £100million throughout his career, but was declared bankrupt in June last year over a £3.3million debt – forcing him to abandon the plush Spanish property.
Berres says he plans to give the empty £13 million villa near the rural town of Arta in north-east Majorca a new lease of life – and claims to have already cut weeds and picked up rubbish around the property along with his hippie commune friends
The 50-year-old former Wimbledon champion is said to have earned in the region of £100million throughout his career, but was declared bankrupt in June last year over a £3.3million debt – forcing him to abandon the plush Spanish property
Meanwhile Berres has told newspapers from his home country who visited him that he would leave if the police turned up to tell him to go, although as of today no complaint from the owner of the house is thought to have been received by Civil Guard officers.
The retired tennis star purchased his Majorcan villa in 1995 and briefly put it on the market in 2007 for a figure reported to be close 15 million euros – or about £13m – before withdrawing it shortly afterwards.
Locals in Arta said last year around the time he was declared bankrupt they hadn’t seen three-times-married Becker for years.
Berres, who moved to Majorca in 2014 and is understood to have lived in several ‘abandoned’ houses on the island after time in a caravan, told German press he had ‘big projects’ for the 31,000-square foot property
Becker, who took the tennis world by storm in in 1985 aged just 17 is thought to own the villa – called Son Coll – through a Spanish company.
It has nearly been auctioned off twice to pay debts.
Becker avoided the scheduled auctioning-off of the property on June 5, 2014, with an eleventh-hour payment to a building firm he owed money to.
A court in Palma suspended the auction after the former tennis star paid Palma-based firm Melchor Mascaro the £377,000 he owed for unpaid work including maintenance, plumbing, electricity, carpentry and a new basketball court.
The retired tennis star purchased his Majorcan villa in 1995 and briefly put it on the market in 2007 for a figure reported to be close 15 million euros – or about £13m – before withdrawing it shortly afterwards. Since it’s been abandoned, Berres has enjoyed the palatial surroundings
The same court had ordered him to pay the money in July 2012 after the building firm sued him.
Berres, who moved to Majorca in 2014 and is understood to have lived in several ‘abandoned’ houses on the island after time in a caravan, told German press he had ‘big projects’ for the 31,000-square foot property.
‘It could be a place for meetings, we would like to plant vegetables, offer seminars about renewable energy and other things that interest people,’ he was quoted as saying.
In March Berres told Majorcan German language newspaper Mallorca Zeitung: ‘We do not occupy houses, we save them, we do not make claims to property, we are concerned with nothing other than to live in a rent-free home and give something back to the house.’
Berres has told newspapers from his home country who visited him that he would leave if the police turned up to tell him to go, although as of today no complaint from the owner of the house is thought to have been received by Civil Guard officers
He also revealed the creation of an organisation called ‘Intergalactic Relief and Rescue Commando’, an internet initiative whose aims included occupying abandoned houses and giving them new life.
Mr Becker’s financial woes hit the headlines in June 2017 after it was reported that he never paid back an undisclosed debt to a private bank.
But in November he insisted that his bankruptcy was a ‘misunderstanding’, explaining that he was ‘in a position’ to settle the bill.
In March Berres told Majorcan German language newspaper Mallorca Zeitung: ‘We do not occupy houses, we save them, we do not make claims to property, we are concerned with nothing other than to live in a rent-free home and give something back to the house’
Speaking to The Times, the former Tennis pro claimed that the situation arose because of a dispute over the interest he owes.
He said: ‘I am in a position to settle to an amount that I owe. It’s a bit like if you go to a restaurant and order a chicken sandwich and a cola and the bill is £10,000.
‘I’d like to go over the bill with the restaurant owner and that chance hasn’t been given to me. That’s why I call this a big misunderstanding. I’m not running away. I live in the middle of London. I’m not hiding.’
At the time, it was reported that there was a possibility his bankruptcy could be annulled should he settle his dispute in the coming months.
He said: ‘I would like to have an annulment. It’s important to me. I could sit it out and say, “My doctor is telling me I need a holiday; my wife hasn’t seen me much.” Theoretically I could do that, but that is the last thing I want to do. To clarify, I want to settle the bill and move on with my life.’
The former Wimbledon great explained that he takes ‘full responsibility’ for his financial situation but had the bank played theoretical tennis ‘doubles’ with him, he would have avoided his bankruptcy.