Gary Neville couldn’t contain his emotions. The former Manchester United defender received England international Dele Alli (27, 37 caps) on The Overlap show. Promised to a bright future after a thunderous debut with Tottenham at the end of the 2010s, the playmaker has since lost his way. A real descent into hell that he explains by a painful childhood.
If he begins the interview by assuring that he has “never been so mentally well”, Alli then reveals a series of traumatic events that occurred from an early age. Victim of touching at the age of six, adopted at twelve, fortunately by “an extraordinary family”, the native of Milton Keynes also explains that he was forced to sell drugs from the age of eight. “An adult told me the police would never arrest a kid on a bike, so I was walking around with my soccer ball and underneath I had drugs.”
Now at Everton after a failed loan spell at Besiktas, the midfielder is no longer in touch with his biological parents and has sunk into drugs and alcohol to cope with his demons. Recently released from a rehabilitation center where he stayed for six weeks, he also says he is addicted to sleeping pills and is worried that the problem is more widespread in football. “With our schedule, when you have to wake up early to train and you can’t sleep from all the adrenaline, sometimes it’s good to take some. But I abused it too much”
His struggles led him to consider retirement at just 24, when he was still under contract at Tottenham and at the height of his career. “The saddest moment for me was probably when [José] Mourinho was manager and he stopped playing me,” Alli said. I looked in the mirror wondering if I could retire at 24 doing what I love.
In Prime Video’s ‘All or nothing’ behind-the-scenes footage of Tottenham’s 2019-20 season, footage showed the Portuguese coach lecturing Alli in his office. “From the start, I had no doubts about your potential. […] But I always had the feeling that you were inconstant. […] I do not know why. Maybe it’s due to your lifestyle, only you can answer that. […] Today I am 56 years old, yesterday I was 20 years old. Time flies. One day, you will regret not giving yourself the means to achieve what you are supposed to achieve.”
At that time, the player partied a lot but felt that the tabloids exaggerated the situation and had a harmful role. He regrets the departure of Mauricio Pochettino, the former Spurs coach, “an extraordinary person, very understanding”, who was interested in him “as a person, before football”.
