Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia – For some people being an athlete is a dream profession. If achievement, honor and wealth will come in an instant. The higher the level of competition, the greater the profit, up to billions of rupiah for one person.
Even so, all of this is temporary because it only happens during the athlete’s productive period. When age is getting older and unproductive, then the era of glory that brings money in an instant is over. After that, athletes are forced to retire and live a new life, which is often quite sad.
One of them was experienced by Boris Becker, a tennis athlete who was once the most successful in the world with various awards, but now lives in poverty and goes to jail. What’s the story?
Boris Becker started life as a tennis player in his early teens. He was considered a young athlete who was quite accomplished in his time. In fact, in July 1985 or when he was 17 years old, he was able to compete in the biggest and most prestigious tennis event in the world, namely the Wimbledon Championships.
It was at Wimbledon that it was unexpected that Becker could beat the seniors to successfully win the title. Imagine, at a very young age, Becker was able to set foot on the first Wimbledon podium. Thanks to this achievement, he set a record as the youngest tennis player to be able to compete and win the 100-year-old champion at Wimbledon. Until now, the record has not been broken.
After that, Becker’s life was always decorated with glory. As written BBCDuring his productive years, he collected all the prestigious world tennis championship trophies. He won the US Open, the Australian Open twice, won Wimbledon three times, lifted the Serious Masters Cup 13 times, and successfully won the gold medal at the 1992 Olympics. .
In exposure Fox SportDuring his successful career, Becker earned US$ 50 million, the equivalent of US$ 120 million or Rp 1.8 trillion today. That number successfully placed Becker as one of the most successful and richest tennis players of his time.
However, the life of an athlete is like a banana tree that only grows once in a lifetime. During his heyday he was free to do whatever he wanted with his wealth, but after retiring his life changed.
Becker retired in 1999 at the age of 32. Seeing that he has Rp. 1.8 trillion in assets, many people certainly think that his life will be happy. Trillions of money may be used until the end of life. Even so, due to poor financial management, Becker could not feel rich for so long.
Thanks to his reckless lifestyle, Becker’s money just disappeared. According to the New York Times report, after retiring he often played women, had affairs, various scandals, and was in debt. One of his biggest scandals was when he evaded taxes.
In 2002, the Munich court had fined Becker € 300,000 and a two-year prison sentence after being found guilty of embezzling taxes for € 1.7 million. This was Becker’s first prison sentence.
However, it all reached its peak in 2017. At that time, a British court officially declared Becker bankrupt after being crushed by mountains of debt. The property he owns cannot cover all of his debts worth € 36.5 million or Rp. 603 billion. According to the rules, he should be jailed for 30 months.
After coming out from behind bars in December 2022, CNN International wrote that he had repented and started to live a new life. It is known, now he has worked as a tennis match commentator at a TV station.
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(mfa/sef)