DELE ALLI EXCLUSIVE
Four years ago he was on tour with MK Dons... now Alli hopes to rule the world with England
TO understand truly how far Dele Alli has come it is only necessary to quiz him on what he was doing during the last World Cup.
‘I think I was on pre-season with MK Dons in Ireland,’ he says. ‘I remember watching one game there, a Brazil game I think.’
In summary, World Cups were not big on the agenda of the 18-year-old, other than watching his footballing role model, England captain Steven Gerrard. In fact, it would be another year before he joined Tottenham, in 2015. Hard to believe now that the transfer fee was £ 5 million. Four years on, Alli may yet be the centrepiece of the England team at the World Cup.
He is a fan of hip hop artist Russ and cites him when assessing the changes in his life. ‘He was asked about his rise and he said it was unbelievable and believable at the same time,’ says Alli. ‘I felt like I could relate to that. There are times when you think: “This is unbelievable. I’m going to the World Cup to play for England”. But at the same time you think, “this is what I’ve been working towards the whole time I’ve been playing”.’
His story has been well told. The son of a single mum, Denise, growing up in Milton Keynes, he moved to live with Alan and Sally Hickford, parents of his then MK Dons team- mate, Harry, at the age of 13, his mum later saying it was an opportunity for Alli to move away from what she feared were disruptive influences and to fulfil his talent.
Alli, 22, has travelled far in a short time. His earliest World Cup memories are not a particular game but the communal barbeques and coming together to watch games on the housing estate where he grew up.
So rapid has his rise been that this season’s tally of nine goals and 10 assists has been compared unfavourably to last season’s, when he had 18 goals and seven assists. ‘If this is a bad season for me then I’m happy to take that as a compliment!’ he says, grinning.
But Alli stands on the cusp of global recognition if he can translate some of his Tottenham form at the World Cup. First, he will have to force his way into the team. Gareth Southgate only used him for 22 minutes in the two friendlies in March, but he played 82 minutes in yesterday’s clash with Nigeria at Wembley.
‘Obviously every player wants to play and every player is disappointed when he’s not in the team but, for me, I just have to keep working hard and if I’m in the team I need to take that opportunity,’ he says.
‘But whatever decisions he [manager Gareth Southgate] makes, it’s important we stick together and everyone fights and if you are not in the starting 11 you are ready to come on and affect the game and help the team.’ There are no doubts in the mind of his Tottenham manager, Mauricio Pochettino, who this year, prior to his birthday, labelled him the best 21-year-old in the world.
‘ Hopefully he said it because he believes it,’ says Alli. He will also be featuring in a soft drinks commercial alongside Lionel Messi during the World Cup and acknowledges that being elevated among such company also brings heightened expectations on the pitch.
‘I didn’t feel any pressure after the manager said that,’ he says. ‘The only pressure I feel is the pressure I put on myself. I want to do as well as I can. But I would never let my feet get off the ground.’
To convince Southgate, Alli will have to address two areas of his game. The first is his goalscoring for England: he has two in 23 caps. The other would be his tackling, though he would dispute this. A red card against Gent in the Europa League demonstrated a l ack of control, understandable in a 20-year-old but still likely to be exploited by opponents at international level.
An indication of his youth is that he has not seen David Beckham’s red card against Argentina in 1998, when Diego Simeone ensured the young Englishman was sent off for the faintest of contacts by tumbling to the ground. However, he is aware that in knockout games which can last 120 minutes, no team can afford red cards and expect to survive.
‘I wouldn’t say it’s something I’ve worked on,’ he says. ‘I’m a big believer in that you have to make mistakes to learn from them anyway. And, yeah, I feel I learned from the things I did before, but it’s not something I worry about at all. I feel I’ve got everything under control. That’s not going to be problem. Obviously I’ve done some things before and people seem to think that will be a problem, but it’s not.’
At his best, Alli is an extraordinary footballer, his finish at Crystal Palace in January 2016 an indication of the quality he was to display regularly in 2016-17 and at times this season. His performance against Real Madrid in November was a sign that he can outcompete even the best.
To see that in Russia, Southgate will have to tap into a game that is more instinctive than forced. His grounding came in street games, played in a five-a-side cage near his Milton Keynes home. ‘It was in a concrete cage. I used to walk up there with my football and I would ask whoever was up there if I could play. It was all about having fun, getting nutmegs, things like that.
‘We played different games. It was what I enjoyed doing and I think it was important as I was getting older that it was always what I enjoyed doing, expressing myself and having fun. It’s a lot more serious now but I still like to keep that in my game.’
And you sense that Alli needs to be nurtured into his best form.
‘I feel like I play better when I’m not thinking about too much of what I’m doing, just focusing on the game and trying to play as well as I can. When I worry too much about the game or look too much into how I’ve been playing, things start to go worse!
‘I try just to work hard on my finishing and work hard on the field, but off the field I don’t like to look back on it too much. I know when I’ve had a bad game. And you think about what you can improve on.
‘ But it’s important you enjoy it. That’s why we started footbal l , because we loved it. And that’s why people watch it, you never know what’s going to happen .I like to entertain.’