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Tennis icon Boris Becker claims Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp was not allowed to visit him in prison due to security concerns.
Six-time Grand Slam champion Becker, who won Wimbledon at the age of just 17 in 1985, was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison in April after being found guilty of four charges under the Insolvency Act.
He was handed the sentence after hiding £2.5m of his assets and loans to avoid paying his creditors.
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Becker was previously declared bankrupt in 2017 with debts of almost £50m, over an unpaid loan of more than £3m on his estate in Majorca.
Earlier this month, Becker was released from HMP Huntercombe in Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, after serving just eight months of his sentence.
The 55-year-old German, who had lived in the UK since 2012, has now been deported to his home country.
Becker speaks about his prison life
In an emotional interview with German TV, Becker opened up on his time in prison and claimed that Liverpool boss Klopp was not allowed to visit him due to security concerns.
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"We are good friends and I gave his name to the authorities but then they came back and said that he couldn’t come as he was too famous and they were concerned for his safety," Becker told Sat TV.
"I was allowed two visits a month and I had to give these names to the authorities so they could be checked out but it is a very slow process.
"The first time Lilian [Becker's girlfriend] came she said she was shocked at how I looked, although she only told me that later."
He went on to provide further detail about his time behind bars.
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"Prison is all about survival," he added.
"This is the detention centre for criminals from London. Murderers, child molesters. There was no mirror. Later I wondered what I looked like.
"I'm also shocked by how I've changed. I made the mistake of only taking black stuff with me. I wanted to look cool, to do a bit of a gangster.
"But the whole thing has something important and good for me learned. And some things happen for a good reason.
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"You're nobody in prison,” he continued.
"You're just a number. Mine was A2923EV. I wasn't called Boris. I was a number. And they don’t give a f*** who you are."
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Featured Image Credit: AlamyTopics: Liverpool, Football, Premier League, Jurgen Klopp, Tennis