Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
DELE: WE’LL BEAT THE BOOHOO BOYS
Spurs star insists his fashion label won’t be a bad omen for England ..and there will be no tears from fans
DELE ALLI may be about to discover that when you lend your name to a fashion label called Boohoo, it can end in tears.
England’s swaggering midfielder had a substantial creative role in a menswear range for a leading online clothes retailer.
If he is all over the park in Russia as much he is ubiquitous on advertising billboards on the London Underground, Alli will be a superstar at the World Cup.
He is at the top of nearly every escalator – and for England, after their insipid exit at Euro 2016 two years ago, the only way is up.
If you do not catch Tottenham’s playmaker on the Tube, there is always the Pepsi advert on TV with Lionel Messi, Marcelo, Toni Kroos and lashings of blue paint.
Boohoo or blue-hoo? Take your pick, but if England are home before the postcards again, as they were in Brazil four years ago, the cry’s the limit.
He said: “I haven’t been on the Tube to see it for myself, but I hear I’m on every escalator. People will be getting sick of seeing me.
“It’s something I’ve been interested in for a long time, and when you’re a footballer who plays for England, you get a lot of opportunities to try out new things.
“Football will always be the main focus for me, but I think it’s great we get these opportunities not only for ourselves but to help other people, and I’m honoured to have this opening where I can try out something different.
“Whether it’s golf or whatever, most footballers do have a hobby to take their minds off it – seven tenths of the year it’s not easy to get drawn into everything else.
“But with the fashion thing I tried it out, it was a great opportunity for me, I had a lot of meetings with the creative team and a big say in what the clothes were like.
“Would I make a model? I’m not sure about that.”
On the pitch, away from the catwalk and its pratfalls, Alli has been going back to the future as a central pivot in the “battleground” of England’s midfield.
It is the role where he first came to prominence at MK Dons when they destroyed Louis van Gaal’s Manchester United 4-0 in the League Cup four years ago, convincing Spurs to take a pygmy £5million punt on his exotic talents where Liverpool hesitated.
He said: “It’s not a new position for me – for my whole time at Milton Keynes I was playing there and it wasn’t really until I signed for Tottenham I started playing in the No.10 role, a bit higher up the pitch.
“I enjoy playing there, but when you have the Three Lions on your jersey you’ll play anywhere you’re needed. It’s the battleground and there’s a lot of different challenges, but there are no guarantees I’m going to be picked to play there.”
Alli’s England place looked in jeopardy when he was dropped for the games with Holland and Italy in March, with Manchester United’s Jesse Lingard seizing his chance by scoring the winner in Amsterdam.
In a season where his form flatlined for Spurs after he had scored twice against European Cup winners Real Madrid at Wembley in the Champions League group stage, Alli insists he was not alarmed by coach Gareth Southgate’s wake-up call.
He said: “I wasn’t concerned as such – as players, everyone who gets picked for England is used to playing regularly for their clubs and obviously I was disappointed not to play.
“But it’s down to me to make sure that if the boss has a decision to make, I put myself in the best possible position to be picked.
“I’ve been working hard, and you go through a lot of things during the season – ups and downs physically, and on the field you don’t always perform to your full potential – but it’s important I come back hungry and make the starting XI if he has a decision to make.
“Everyone wants to play, and the manager has to pick 11 when there are 23 to choose from. I’m just one of many who want to be in the team.”