Dele Alli has given a shocking and revealing interview to Gary Neville, in which he describes his difficult upbringing and his battle with drug addiction.
The Everton midfielder and former England international has revealed he was molested as a child by a friend of his birth mother and hanged from a bridge by someone from his area.
“To be honest, I haven’t really talked about it. I mean, I think there were a few incidents that might give you a brief understanding,” he told Neville on his Youtube channel, TheOverlap.
” When I was six years old, I was molested by a friend of my mother, who often came to my house. My mother was an alcoholic, and it happened when I was six years old. I was sent to Africa to learn discipline, then I was sent back.
The descent into Hell
Alli rose to prominence as one of Tottenham’s best players in the 2015-16 season and was one of England’s stars on their way to the 2018 World Cup semi-finals .
His career began to decline in 2019 when José Mourinho was his manager at Tottenham and he struggled to get back on track when he signed for Everton in February 2022. He enjoyed an unsuccessful loan spell in Turkey with Besiktas la last season and spent six weeks in a rehabilitation clinic in the United States, from which he was discharged in June.
Dele revealed that throughout his career he had to deal with the trauma of his childhood. He said he started dealing drugs when he was eight years old and was exploited by gangs because the police never prosecuted him.
