In the back, Lloris, Walker, Dier, Vertonghen, Alderweireld, in the midfield Dembele and Ericksen, in the attack Son and Kane – and to glue all that talent together England’s own Dele Alli. It was a great squad of Tottenham Hotspur between 2015 and 2019. Some left, some stayed and among those who are no longer with the Spurs is Alli himself who has been on a downward spiral ever since Mauricio Pochettino left north London after losing that Champions League final against Liverpool.Like at a push of a button, Alli became unrecognizable on the pitch, became increasingly absent from the field due to injuries and private issues and was eventually sold. Off the pitch, there were always rumours about his attitude and heightened confidence. Nothing too scary, you would say especially for a professional athlete but something much more sinister was underlying it all.Alli was heralded as a generational talent during his early days at Tottenham but his career has not turned out the way many predicted. The England star emerged as one of the country’s best young talents despite a troubled childhood that saw him taken into foster care.In a heartbreaking interview with the Overlap, the current Everton attacker has spoken openly about his difficulties in recent years.##NAJAVA_MECA_7369755##Dele Alli has bravely revealed that he checked himself into rehab to kick an addiction to sleeping tablets.While speaking to Gary Neville, Alli has disclosed he spent a recent spell in a rehab facility and shared details from his traumatic childhood, including the revelation that he was molested a child by a friend of his mother’s.‘I got addicted to sleeping tablets, it’s a problem not only I have. It’s going around more than people realise in football’, the 27-year-old said.’Now is probably the right time to tell people. It’s tough to talk about it as it’s quite recent and something I’ve hid for a long time and I’m scared to talk about.’When I came back from Turkey (following a loan spell at Besiktas) I came back and found out I needed an operation.’I was in a bad place mentally. I decided to go to a modern rehab facility that deals with addiction and mental health and trauma. I felt it was time for me.’You can’t be told to go there, you have to make the decision yourself.’I was in a bad cycle. I was relying on things that were doing me harm. I was waking up every day, winning the fight going into training every day smiling – willing to show I was happy.’Inside I was losing the battle and it was time to change. When I was told I needed surgery I could feel the feelings I had when the cycle began.’So I went there for six weeks. Everton were amazing and supported I will be grateful to them for ever. For them to be so honest and understanding I couldn’t ask for anything more during a time I was making the biggest decision of my life – doing something I was scared to do. I’m happy I’ve done it.’##EDITORS_CHOICE##As far as the stigma that surrounds rehabilitation facilities, Dele says that it was frightening but it had to be done.’Going into rehab is scary but I could never have imagined how much I would get from it.’ he says.’I was in a bad place. A lot happened to me when I was younger that I couldn’t understand and I was doing stupid things that I blame myself for.’Going there and learning about it, it was never really under my control.’Understanding learning it has helped. I let go of some bad feelings I was holding which was slowing me down.’Going way back to his childhood, Alli made it a little bit more clear to the public why he lacked the stability to endure the waves of fame and failure and all things heavy surrounding a football star. He shared harrowing details of his traumatic childhood, including an incident that saw him molested by a friend of his biological mother’s. ‘(My childhood is) something I haven’t really spoken about that much, to be honest. I mean, I think there were a few incidents that could give you kind of a brief understanding,’ Alli continued. ‘So, at six, I was molested by my mum’s friend, who was at the house a lot. My mum was an alcoholic, and that happened at six. I was sent to Africa to learn discipline, and then I was sent back. ‘At seven, I started smoking, eight I started dealing drugs. An older person told me that they wouldn’t stop a kid on a bike, so I rode around with my football, and then underneath I’d have the drugs, that was eight. Eleven, I was hung off a bridge by a guy from the next estate, a man.’Dele Alli’s Premier League record from 2015 to 2020: pic.twitter.com/nPpeJUGyPy— Football Daily (@footballdaily) September 21, 2020 But Alli shared that his life turned around in sensational fashion when he was adopted by Alan and Sally Hickford. He is extremely close with his family, and is currently managed by his brother, Harry. ‘Twelve, I was adopted – and from then, it was like – I was adopted by an amazing family like I said, I couldn’t have asked for better people to do what they’d done for me. If God created people, it was them. ‘They were amazing, and they’ve helped me a lot, and that was another thing, you know – when I started living with them, it was hard for me to really open up to them, because I felt within myself, it was easy to get rid of me again. I tried to be the best kid I could be for them. I stayed with them from 12, and then started playing first-team, professionally, at 16. It all sort of took off from there.’ In rehab, Alli was taught to consider his childhood in a different light. ‘They taught me in rehab, I’m not allowed to say I was a bad kid but I got in trouble a lot, you know, with the police. I had no rules, I grew up without any rules. Like I said, my mum she drank a lot and I don’t blame her at all for what happened. ‘I think going to [rehab] really helped me understand her and the things she was going through and what she had to deal with, and it was all she knew.’Me going into rehab now has helped me understand her – it was all she knew. Like, even when she let me go and I got adopted, she knew and I knew that it was what was needed to even have a chance of living the life I wanted to live and be successful. And because it was only going one way if I stayed there.’🗓 #OnThisDay In 2015, Tottenham Hotspur Completed The Signing Of Dele Alli:👕 Games: 234⚽️ Goals: 64🅰️ Assists: 57🌟 More Goals And Assists Combined Then Lampard, Beckham And Gerrard Before Turning 21.💯 Put Some Respect On His Name.#THFC #COYSpic.twitter.com/mbEUWpfm9C— Last Word On Spurs (@LastWordOnSpurs) February 2, 2021 The impact of his difficult childhood led to feelings of betrayal in the player, and Alli stated that he has no interest in a relationship with either his biological mother or father. ‘I don’t speak to my mum anymore,’ Alli added. ‘So, when I was 18, my biological mum and dad went to the newspaper and like, started accusing the family that adopted me of doing all this stuff when they didn’t know what they had, like they were the ones that used to make me go and see my mum. I never wanted to go. ‘They would always tell me, ‘She’s your mum, like you should have a relationship with her’. And I think that spoke volumes, like what they were doing. They were just doing it generally because they’re amazing people. So yeah.’And then my mum – my blood mum and dad – went to the press saying that these people are taking advantage of me. They want to go through my contracts. And I hadn’t spoken to him for years. And I knew that wasn’t my mum’s decision because I know she didn’t really leave Milton Keynes. Like there was no way she’d done that. ‘After that I just felt so betrayed and let down. And hurt that I just couldn’t keep the relationship with my mum. And my dad, I don’t want a relationship with him either.’#OnThisDay in 2015, Dele Alli scored his first England goal.What a strike that was ⚡pic.twitter.com/1lORMtzF7v— Vidafan.co (@VidafanCo) November 17, 2021 Instead, Alli found solace not only in the close relationship he has with his adopted family, but in football, and in particular, his relationship with then-Tottenham coach Pochettino. ‘Mauricio Pochettino was the best manager and I couldn’t have asked for a better manager at the time. I was in him and his team, you know, not just him. There was Jesus (Perez), Miguel (d’Agostino) and Tony (Jimenez). They are amazing people and they’re so understanding, and it wasn’t like a footballer and a manager relationship. It was deeper than that, I felt. ‘He was just so understanding of the decisions I was making, and he was guiding – like, he cared about me as a person before the football, which is what I needed at that time. And I think that’s important for young players’When you go somewhere it can be quite scary, I think. And I never had that fear of, you know, trying to prove myself in that sense, because I felt like he was giving me the platform to express myself the best I could and to be comfortable. I mean, players always used to say, ‘I want to be like that’ (fearless). I wasn’t fearless. I was just brave. But I think being brave, you feel the fear still, but you still do it. And I think that’s something that he allowed me to do.’So yeah, I think (Pochettino) helped a lot in that period of my career, which is why it was tough for me when he left. Because, you know, then you [get] new managers, and it was hard for me to let anyone in at that point and to be open. And I felt like everything was just so fake.’🎙️ Dele Alli on THAT José Mourinho meeting: “That lazy comment – people love to bring it up. That was the day after a recovery day [he said that]. A week later, he apologised to me for calling me lazy. Because he’d seen me actually train. But that wasn’t in the documentary.” pic.twitter.com/sMcOTdPqTr— Football Tweet ⚽ (@Football__Tweet) July 13, 2023 Jose Mourinho’s episode at Tottenham only multiplied Alli’s struggles. The former Chelsea boss infamously described Alli as ‘lazy’ in Spurs’ Amazon documentary, but the player shared that a later apology for the incident was made by Mourinho, only to fail to make it into the final cut. ‘He called me lazy – that was the day after recovery day. A week later, he apologised to me for calling me lazy because he’d seen me actually train and play. But that wasn’t in the documentary, and no one spoke up about that because it was only me and him.’In the team meeting, he called me lazy but then one on one, I think it was on the pitch he apologised for it. And I didn’t think anything of it at the time because I know myself – I’m not lazy.’What you see sometimes isn’t the way it really is. I think, especially now with social media and all these things, we can really portray something that isn’t real. After that, I think people definitely tried to use that, for some other decisions.’I think other coaches maybe, for other reasons why I weren’t playing, they stuck to that – lazy one – because it was kind of an easy, easy one to use. And the problem was probably more than that, I think.’Poch will call Dele, not to bring him to Chelsea but to save him from miseryAlli stressed that Everton manager Sean Dyche had been extremely supportive of him in their conversations about his future at Goodison Park. ‘Me and (Dyche) have had some good conversations, not so much about football at this point because obviously I’m still injured, but about where I’m at,’ Alli said.’And I’d like to say a big thanks to him as well – I think for someone that didn’t really know me, for this to be thrown on him and to be so understanding and not even just understanding, we had a good conversation and, like I said, he was supportive.’Right now, it’s just about getting back on the pitch and showing him what I can do, and the talks were more about what I’ve done in terms of the rehab and how I’m feeling, which is a normal question for people to have, I think. So yeah, a lot of the talks so far have been about that, and then, yeah, I just need to get back fit which isn’t too long away.’I’m feeling good in that sense, probably another few weeks (away from returning from injury) and then get back playing and enjoying football which is what I want to do. So, I’m ready for a big season and I’m more prepared to deal with any challenge that comes with it.’In 2017, Dele Alli became the first player to win back-to-back PFA Young Player of the Year awards since Wayne Rooney (2004-06).2015/16◉ 33 games◉ 10 goals◉ 9 assists2016/17◉ 37 games◉ 18 goals◉ 7 assistsBurst onto the scene. 🤩 pic.twitter.com/2QD4XfFHWr— Squawka (@Squawka) August 25, 2022 Alli hopes that the conversation about his own journey will in turn help others to ask for help, be vulnerable with those close to them, and feel inspired to change their lives. ‘I want to reiterate the fact that people don’t need to fear change. I think change is always hard, when something’s uncomfortable and difficult, you get a feeling, you get scared, you get the fear. ‘But when you have that feeling, that’s the exact time when you have to jump and go for it because at the other side of fear and change is usually only positives things. And hopefully, me talking about my experiences is helpful to them so.’ One of the biggest ‘what ifs’ of the world of football, for sure. At one point Real Madrid were inches away from signing the then-best young player of the Premier League and one of the leading men of that super-talented Tottenham squad. Now we can only wish Alli the best in his endevours and thank him for his honesty because there are sure many in this world who can identify with his struggles.
