0:00 Dele Alli's streaming on Twitch was definitely not on my bingo card. He has thousands of people watching him play Fortnite and calling his former teammates. Nothing wrong with that. Plenty of athletes are now doing content creation. It's the future. >> Who is saying Messi is better than me? >> But this is Dele Alli we're talking about. A player who at one point looked like he was going to become one of the best players in the world. He was supposed to be the future of English football. I mean, the dude won back-to-back Young Player of the Year awards in the Premier League. Now, recently something happened on one of his streams that really put into perspective just how much his life has changed. Dele called Harry Kane and obviously these two go way back. At Tottenham, Kane and Dele Alli were inseparable on the pitch. Kane would drop deep, Dele would make these amazing runs beyond them. For a few years, they were one of the most dangerous partnerships in England. But now Kane is
0:46 still playing at the highest level, while Dele is sitting at home streaming Fortnite. At one point, Kane even asked him, >> Yeah. Working hard at home. Working hard. >> Always, bro. Come on, you know me. >> All right. Working hard and having fun. >> It was obviously just two friends joking around, but there was also something pretty sad about it. Kane clearly had not been in touch with Dele for a while cuz he didn't know that Dele has only played around 10 minutes of competitive football since February of 2023. And the guy is only 30. That's what makes Dele's story so difficult to understand because there was a time when this guy looked like the next English superstar. He was Bellingham before Bellingham. And now some people are only going to know him as the Fortnite content creator. What the hell happened to Dele Alli?
1:40 To understand how crazy Dele's fall has been, you have to remember just how quickly he became a star. Dele joined the MK Dons Academy when he was 11 years old. He stood out cuz he was brilliant on the ball and really athletic. He also played with a level of footballing arrogance that can't be taught. By 16 years old, he was already playing professional football. Dele made his MK Dons debut in November of 2012 in the FA Cup against Cambridge City. And his first touch in professional football was a back heel cuz you know, apparently normal 5-yard passes were already beneath him. 11 days later, he scored his first professional goal. Then during the following season, he started becoming a regular. In March of 2014, while he was still only 17 years old, Dele scored a hat-trick against Notts County. But the season that really changed everything was the 2014-2015 season. Dele was now 18 years old playing in League One. And I mean, this
2:26 guy was too good for it. He scored 16 league goals in 39 games from midfield and helped MK Dons push for promotion. But there was one game that really made everyone pay attention. In August of 2014, MK Dons faced United in the League Cup. On one side, you had Premier League players earning ridiculous amounts of money. On the other, you had an 18-year-old Dele Alli playing in League One. And MK Dons absolutely destroyed them 4-0. What is it with United and losing to lower league oppositions in the Carabao Cup? Dele was brilliant. He was winning tackles then driving through midfield. When he got the ball, taking players on. Suddenly, Premier League clubs were looking at this kid thinking, "Yeah, we got to sign this guy." Liverpool were interested, Aston Villa wanted him, Newcastle were interested. And Dele himself was a massive Steven Gerrard fan. So for a while, Liverpool looked like the obvious destination. But
3:11 Tottenham got there first. In February of 2015, Spurs signed him for around 5 million pounds. I know today that sounds like the price that Chelsea would pay for a random 13-year-old from Ecuador. But at the time, 5 million pounds for a League One teenager was serious money. It actually became MK Dons' record sale. And more than a decade later, that record still hasn't been beat. Spurs then loaned Dele straight back to MK Dons for the rest of the season. So he got to finish what he started. MK Dons won promotion to the Championship. And that summer, Dele Alli finally joined Mauricio Pochettino's Tottenham squad. Now normally, this is where you would expect the story to slow down. He's 19 jumping directly from League One to a club trying to qualify for the Champions League. You'd maybe expect this guy to sit on the bench, go out on loan, slowly get introduced to Premier League football. Yeah, Dele skipped all of that because within a few months, he was
3:58 becoming one of the best young players in the the Premier League. In Dele's first Premier League season, he was still a teenager, he scored 10 goals and got nine assists. He became part of the ridiculous young Tottenham attack with Harry Kane, Son, and Christian Eriksen. Dele fit Pochettino's football perfectly. He was given the freedom to make these late runs into the box, and defenders had absolutely no idea where he was coming from. He won the PFA Young Player of the Year award in his first season, then won it again the next year. In that second season, it was actually ridiculous. Dele scored 18 Premier League goals and got seven assists. All from midfield, guys, at 20 years old. When you compare his numbers to some of the greatest players in Premier League history, you realize just how insane his start actually was. Before his 21st birthday, Dele had 25
4:43 Premier League goals and 15 assists. So, 40 goal contributions. Ronaldo only had 25 at the same age. Lampard had 15. Paul Scholes had 14. Steven Gerrard had 13, and David Beckham had 12. So, Dele Alli had more Premier League goal contributions before turning 21 than Lampard, Gerrard, and Beckham combined. it sounded like one of those fake stats that people make on Twitter just to get paid, but it was real. Even Lampard couldn't believe it. When Sky Sports showed him the numbers, he admitted Dele was way ahead of where he had been at that age. >> Special players. Dele Alli is a special player. >> Chris has tweeted in that Frank wish he could be as good as Dele [music] Alli. >> Well, he's better than me when I was 20, that's for sure. >> It's amazing, isn't it, what he's done this season? >> It is, and he's playing [music] He's got I don't know how many goals. He's got 11 in 13, I think it should be, but I mean, he >> Pochettino went even further. He called Dele the best young player in Europe.
5:30 And again, at the time, this did not sound crazy at all, cuz Dele also loved a big game. In January of 2017, Chelsea came to White Hart Lane having won 13 Premier League games in a row. This was the Antonio Conte team, and they looked unstoppable. They were on their way to winning the league, and Dele decided that their winning streak was ending that night. He scored twice, both headers, both created by Christian Eriksen. >> OVER TO DELE ALLI. PLAY CONTINUES. ERIKSEN plays it to the far post. ALLI IS THERE. IT'S TWO. >> Spurs ended up winning 2-0. Then, a year later came one of his most famous performances, Real Madrid at Wembley. And remember who Real Madrid were at this point. They had CR7, Sergio Ramos, Luka Modric, Toni Kroos, Casemiro. This was the same squad that had just won back-to-back Champions Leagues. And in that same year would eventually make it three in a row. Yet Tottenham beat them
6:17 3-1 with Dele scoring twice. This 21-year-old who had been playing League One football a few years earlier was now cooking Real Madrid in the Champions League. Then two years later came Ajax. Champions League semi-final, Spurs were 3-0 down on aggregate at half-time in Amsterdam. Now Lucas Moura obviously became the hero with the hat-trick, but watch the winning goal again. In the 96th minute, the ball comes to Dele. And with Tottenham's entire season depending on this moment, he does enough to poke the ball perfectly into Lucas Moura's path. Tottenham were going to the Champions League final and Dele had another massive Champions League moment. What made him great was that he wasn't really a normal midfielder. He was essentially a second striker pretending to be a midfielder. The fancy tactical term for you tactical nerds out there is Raumdeuter. Thomas Müller is the most famous example. This is a player who's constantly looking for space and Dele
7:03 was incredible at it. It's why he scored so many goals. His movement was ridiculous. And Pochettino understood exactly how to use him. The problem is that this type of player needs the right system. If you suddenly ask Dele to become a normal central midfielder, you're taking away the exact things that made him special. And eventually, that's exactly what happened. The obvious turning point came in November of 2019 when Tottenham sacked Mauricio Pochettino. And for Dele, their relationship was incredibly close. Pochettino himself described it almost like a father and son relationship. He understood Dele's personality. He knew when to support him. He knew when to be hard on him. But then Pochettino was gone and Tottenham replaced him with Jose Mourinho. I mean, these are two completely different personalities. Mourinho immediately started challenging Dele. You guys remember this scene from the Amazon documentary? >> But he's not a good good trainer. We need to find the right motivation for him.
7:51 [ __ ] lazy. I understood already. Where is Dele? I understood already that you are a [ __ ] lazy guy in training. I [music] don't need more days. Lazy, but lazy. >> Now Mourinho was obviously trying to motivate him. He knew how good Dele had been and wanted that player back. But, their relationship never became anything like what Dele had with Pochettino. >> I am 56 now, and the yesterday, yesterday, I was 20. You know what I mean? >> Yeah. >> And today I'm 56. Time flies. And I think one day, I think you will regret if you don't
8:37 reach what you can reach. >> And tactically, things were changing, too. Dele wasn't getting that same freedom to just float around Kane and attack space. He was being asked to play deeper, do different things without the ball. Slowly, the player everyone had watched explode onto the scene started disappearing. The goals and assists disappeared like the imaginary girlfriend my boy claimed he had, who just happened to go to a different school. His minutes eventually disappeared, too. And when Antonio Conte arrived in 2021, Dele was finished at Tottenham. He started just two Premier League games under Conte before Spurs decided to move him on in January of 2022. At this point, Dele was still only 25. So, you could easily look at everything that happened and say he just needed a fresh start, a new club, a manager who believes in him. But, unfortunately, the problems were about to get much bigger than football.
9:22 >> [music] >> Um and also, Mauricio Pochettino tonight has said that Dele Alli, at age 21, is there a better 21-year-old in the world with what he can do, assists and goal scoring, and so forth? What do you think about [music] that? >> Uh slight exaggeration, I think. I think the kid's still got a lot to do. Potential is there, but um there's plenty he can improve on. >> Yeah. I I Do you think it's just a little uh not necessarily a dip in form this season, but a bit of a plateauing in form from Dele Alli? >> Yeah, which happens to 21-year-olds. >> can happen to a lot of young players, but I I just worry about that kid with what he's doing off the field. I see him doing a lot of commercial stuff. I always think these kids focus [music] on what you're doing on the football pitch. >> In January of 2022, Tottenham finally let Dele Alli leave. He went to Everton, and it looked like a pretty good place for him to restart his career, especially because their manager was Frank Lampard. You know, the same Frank
10:08 Lampard who Dele was being compared to when he was 20 years old. Now, the deal itself was pretty strange. Everton technically signed Dele for free, but Tottenham included a bunch of performance-related bonuses. The most important one was that once Dele reached 20 appearances for Everton, they would have to pay Spurs 10 million pounds. At first, it wasn't really a problem. Dele made 13 appearances during his first half season, and he actually played an important role in Everton staying up. But then Everton's financial problems became a massive issue. They were already struggling with PSR. Eventually, they would receive point deductions. So, suddenly that 10 million pound payment to Tottenham did become a problem. Cuz remember, Dele was sitting on 13 appearances. Seven more and Everton owed Spurs money. So, Everton reportedly tried renegotiating the deal. They offered Tottenham around 8 million pounds to change the appearance clause. Spurs said no, and Dele got stuck. He
10:53 was still training, he was still technically an Everton player, but playing him would cost the club millions. So, Everton eventually sent him to Turkey. Dele joined Besiktas on loan for the 2022-2023 season. And the idea was for him to rebuild his career away from England. Well, it didn't work. He struggled badly. The fans turned on him, the Turkish media destroyed him. Then Dele suffered a serious groin injury and his season was over. He went back to England for surgery, and by June of 2024, his Everton contract had expired. Dele was now a free agent. Again, we're talking about someone who wasn't even 30 yet. Eventually, Cesc Fàbregas gave him another opportunity. Como signed him on an 18-month contract. The idea of Dele rebuilding his career in Italy under Fàbregas sounded pretty cool. Then he finally got his opportunity. March 2025, Como against AC Milan. Dele hadn't played a professional game in 748 days,
11:40 almost two entire years. So, in the 81st minute, he came off the bench, and 9 minutes later he was sent off. You genuinely couldn't script this. Even Kyle Walker, his former England and Tottenham teammate, who was playing for Milan, was trying to convince the referee not to send him off. It didn't matter. Dele walked down the tunnel. >> Dele Alli, mate, so disappointing. You tried everything, didn't you, to try and help him to keep him on the pitch in that game. >> I think my heart kicked in. Now, [music] anyone else, I would have just let him get a send off. I know what he's tried to do, we've all done it, >> [music] >> where you just clip the ankles of someone and they don't get the counter-attack, but he's caught Ruben a little bit too high. [music] For the personal relationship that I have with Dele, for the number of years that I've known Dele, what he's been through, and I think he's been very strong and open about that, [music] and very brave in coming out and saying what he said. To finally come back after such a long time of being [music] out, to then get sent
12:26 off for not really a cynical challenge. [music] It's It was a little bit hard done by, but the ref has a job to do in the end. To be fair to him, the ref has done well there. >> I think a lot of people would have respected you for that. >> I went to see him after because he was down, he was disappointed, he was [music] frustrated with himself for the decision, but no one goes onto the pitch not wanting to be the best player. You have a decision, [music] and you have to make sure if that's the right or wrong one. >> 10 minutes of football after waiting 748 days. It's like waiting 30 years to lose your virginity, then you bust in 30 seconds. Those ended up being the only competitive minutes he played for Como. He was released a few months later, which brings us back to the situation we talked about at the beginning. Now, if you only looked at what was happening on the pitch, you'd be missing the most important part of this entire story. Cuz for years, people thought they knew why
13:11 Dele Alli's career had collapsed. Oh, he's lazy, he doesn't care anymore. Just one of those guys who got rich too young. They used to say he cares more about fashion and video games than football. >> He's chosen this path to be on documentaries like All or Nothing, where you get to see a laughing going idiot being told by his manager that he doesn't train very well. You get to see someone turning up at Everton on a move, which was a downward move in terms of there was no real fee involved. That was the valuation of when he turns up on a pitch looking like a refugee, as I said before, an escapee, better words. From parts of the country. >> Then in 2023, Dele finally explained what had actually been happening, and suddenly his entire story looked completely different. In July of 2023, Dele sat down with Gary Neville for an interview on The Overlap. And this is probably one of the most difficult interviews I've ever watched from a footballer. His childhood was horrible.
13:58 His mother struggled with alcoholism, and Dele revealed that when he was 6 years old, he was sexually abused by one of his mother's friends. At 7, he started smoking. At 8, he was dealing drugs. Older people would send him around on a bike with drugs hidden underneath the football because they believed the police wouldn't stop a child. Then at 11 years old, Dele said he was hung off a bridge by someone from another estate. >> So, at 6, I was molested by my mom's friend who was at the house a lot. So, my mom was an alcoholic. Um and then
14:44 Sorry. >> You don't be sorry. >> Yeah, so that happened at 6. >> [snorts] >> And then I was sent to Africa to learn discipline. [music] Um >> [clears throat] >> and then I was sent back. Seven, I started smoking. Eight, I started dealing drugs. >> Selling drugs. >> Selling drugs, yeah. >> [clears throat] >> An older person told me that they wouldn't stop a kid on a bike, so I'd ride around with my football. And then underneath I'd have the drugs and >> [snorts] >> uh yeah, and so that was eight. 11, I was hung off a bridge. >> By who? >> Uh a guy from the next estate, a man. And then yeah, 12 I was adopted, so
15:30 >> Just think about that for a second. People spend years watching this guy play football and talking about whether he was hardworking or not. Meanwhile, this was the childhood he was carrying around with him. At 12 years old, Dele's life finally became more stable. He moved in with the Hickford family. Their son, Harry, played with Dele at MK Dons and would eventually become his agent. Dele considers the Hickfords his real family. >> They were amazing. Um when I started living with them, it was hard for me to really open up to them because it was easy I felt within myself, you know, it was easy for them to get rid of me again. Uh So, yeah, I tried to be the best kid I could be for them. Um Yeah, I stayed with them from 12 and then started playing first team professionally at 16.
16:17 And then it all sort of took off from there. So, yeah, that's a kind of a >> So, you've had really only three or four years in your life of probably stability. That probably period between 12 and 15, 16 before it sort of went like that again. >> Yeah, um >> He eventually stopped using Alli on the back of his shirt because he said he didn't feel any connection to that name. But obviously moving into a better environment didn't just erase everything that happened before. And as Dele's football career started falling apart, a lot of those problems came back. He revealed that he had become addicted to sleeping pills, using them as an escape, sometimes mixing them with alcohol. And this was happening while everyone on the outside was watching his performances get worse and deciding he simply didn't care about football anymore. After his disastrous time at Beşiktaş, Dele realized he needed serious help. So, he checked himself into rehab for 6 weeks. He started dealing with the trauma that
17:03 he'd been carrying around since childhood. And I think this is where we need to be careful when talking about what happened to Dele Alli because yes, there are football reasons for his decline. I talked about them in this video. But the idea that Dele simply got rich and became lazy completely ignores what was happening behind the scenes. When Mourinho was asked whether the old Dele Alli had gone, there were things happening inside Dele's life that nobody knew about. Even Pochettino later said that Dele's interview was too painful for him to watch. And when you know everything now, it makes the beginning of Dele's career feel even crazier. The kid had experienced more trauma before becoming a teenager than most people will experience in their entire lives. And somehow he still became one of the best young footballers in Europe. If you enjoyed this video, I'm sure you will love this one, too. Check it out right here.
