Amadeus was born in London in March 2010. We are applying for him to have British citizenship, just to confirm that we can call this home. My daughter Anna and her mother Angela both have British citizenship. And that then raises the question about me.

The longer I live in London, the more I have a longing for British citizenship. Obviously it has professional implications, especially if you have business interests in the UK, and having been raised a proud German and won the Davis Cup and Olympic gold for Germany, it would be a wrench. But I wouldn’t rule it out. That decision is for later, but the fact that we are applying for citizenship for Amadeus means we’re all thinking about it.

The discussion about British citizenship throws into question my relationship with Germany, which is a strange one these days. It starts with the language – I get the sense that a lot of Germans don’t even think I’m German. I even get German tourists or German people abroad speaking English to me. I hear their accent, and I say to them, ‘If you want to speak German, I’m happy to do so.’ They almost seem confused about whether I’m English or German. It’s unfortunate, but a lot starts and ends with the language. I spend about three-quarters of the day speaking English. I like to think my English is OK – it’s not perfect, but it’s OK. I got the sense that Germany accepted me being in Switzerland, because it’s a German-speaking country, but there’s a bit of history between England and Germany. It’s as if the Germans are uncomfortable that I’m so popular in England, as if the English shouldn’t like Boris Becker because he’s ‘one of us’.

I was also somewhat hurt by the reaction in the German media when the news broke that I was to be Novak Djokovic’s head coach. Some of the German media were genuinely asking whether I understood tennis, and whether I’d have the qualifications, knowledge and understanding to work with a player as good as Djokovic. That’s how ridiculous it became. It would have been legitimate to ask whether I was able to put across my knowledge in a way that would have been useful to Novak, but in Germany it went further than that. It was literally ‘does he understand tennis enough to help a player of Djokovic’s calibre?’ It was also interesting at the end of 2014 to see how many stories there were in the German media about Djokovic as ‘the comeback kid’ – the subtext to this was a fair bit of face-saving on the part of journalists who had questioned my suitability for the job. I wasn’t trying to prove people wrong, they had simply been wrong to question it in the first place.

I should point out that much of the issue to do with my relationship with Germany has to do with the media, not the people. I don’t dislike Germany, I’m still comfortable in my native tongue; I can speak and dream in German, even though I dream mostly in English. Most of the German public like me, or certainly respect me – they don’t always understand me, but even if all they see of me is on a television game show in a nice suit, I think most people take the view ‘What’s there not to like?’

The problem is that the name ‘Boris Becker’ sells a lot of headlines if there’s a scandal involved and if there’s no scandal involved they have to create one or not write about me. Since I’ve matured and lived quietly, my private life doesn’t sell newspapers. That’s the problem they have with me – it’s either huge news or no news. I sometimes say to people that in most countries I’m a sports star, but in Germany I’m a phenomenon, and it’s very difficult to be a normal person when you’re a phenomenon. I was recently at Munich airport, collecting my bags, when a member of the German public recognised me and started talking to me. He said ‘But you’re picking up your own suitcase!’ I said of course I was picking up my own suitcase, why shouldn’t I? He said ‘Well I expected you to have an army of minders who do that for you.’ That’s obviously the image many people have of me. Some superstars may have that, but it’s not me. This is how the false and outdated media image of Boris Becker continues, but it’s not who I am. All I want is to be given a fair chance to be who I am, but it seems impossible in Germany, at least for the moment.

This is why I don’t think I’ll ever live in Germany again. I stress it’s nothing against the country; it’s simply for reasons of privacy. Maybe as I get older, people will stop prying and my relationship with Germany and the German media will naturally get better – only time will tell. I think it’s important to also say that my feeling of being at home in England doesn’t mean I’m turning my back on Germany or becoming in some way un-German. If Germany plays England at football, I still want Germany to win, but I want England to come second. I cheer for both Germany and England, but if they meet in the final I want the Germans to win. I represented Germany for 15 years, they played the anthem for me, I won the Olympic gold medal and the Davis Cup for Germany, so it would be lying and not true to my core if I said I didn’t instinctively want Germany to win. My feeling of being at home in England and possibly applying for British citizenship won’t change that.