‘My traumatic childhood...from being abused to dealing drugs... left me addicted to sleeping pills’
FORMER England star Dele Alli has revealed the nightmare childhood he survived to reach Premier League glory and how the trauma left him addicted to sleeping pills.
The Everton midfielder, 27, laid bare his harrowing abuse in an emotional interview with former Manchester United player
Gary Neville.
Alli revealed he was molested by a friend of his alcoholic mother’s aged six.
He was then sent to Africa to learn “discipline” but was sent back to the UK where he began smoking aged seven and was dealing drugs by the age of eight.
An adult told him police “wouldn’t stop a kid on a bike...so I rode around with a football and underneath I’d have the drugs”. And a thug dangled a terrified Alli over the side of a bridge when he was 11.
His testimony had interviewer and pundit Neville in tears as he consoled the troubled pro.
At the age of 12, Alli’s life took a turn for the better when he was adopted by a loving, caring family.
The star says he has no interest in contacting his biological family as he feels “betrayed” by them.
His harrowing childhood continued to cause him problems even as he was hailed as a “generational talent” playing for Tottenham and England.
‘Going into rehab is scary but I could never have imagined how much I would get from it...I let go of some bad feelings’
Harm
He says he almost retired from football aged 24 because of his problems.
He told Neville’s YouTube channel The Overlap that he checked himself into rehab to deal with an addiction to sleeping tablets and to confront his experiences.
Alli said: “I got addicted to sleeping tablets. It’s a problem not only I have, it’s going around more than people realise in football.
“It’s tough to talk about it as it’s something I’ve hid for a long time.
“I decided to go to a rehab facility. 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.”
The Prince of Wales has expressed his support for Dele.
William, the FA president and patron with the Princess of Wales of mental health charity Heads Together, tweeted: “Brave and inspirational... Discussing mental health is not a sign of weakness. Let’s keep the conversation going. We’re all with you and we wish you the very best.W”
The player told how he confronted his childhood issues once he got over “the stigma” around rehabilitation facilities, saying: “Going into rehab is
scary but I could never have imagined how much I would get from it.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 has helped. I let go of some bad feelings I was holding which were slowing me down.”
‘At six, I was molested by my mum’s friend, who was at the house a lot. “My mum was an alcoholic. 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.
Eleven, I was hung off a bridge by a guy from the next estate, a man.”
His life turned around when he was adopted by Alan and Sally Hickford and he is currently managed by his brother Harry Hickford.
Support
Alli, who was at Tottenham for seven years from 2015 until 2022, paid tribute to ex-Spurs boss Mauricio Pochettino as the “best” he’s ever played for.
He said: “I couldn’t have asked for a better manager at the time. It wasn’t like a footballer-manager relationship. It was deeper than that, I felt. He was just so understanding of the decisions I was making and was guiding. He cared about me as a person before the football, which is what I needed at that time.
“That’s important for young players. When you go somewhere it can be quite scary.
“It was tough for me when he left. 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.”
Under Jose Mourinho, Alli’s form dropped and the former Chelsea manager infamously described him as “******* lazy” in an Amazon Prime documentary about Tottenham’s 2019-20 season. Alli said: “He called me lazy. A week later, he apologised because he’d seen me train and play. But that wasn’t in the documentary and no one spoke up about that because it was only me and him. I know myself – I’m not lazy.”
He praised Everton manager Sean Dyche’s “understanding” in recent months and thanked the club for its “amazing” support, saying he would be grateful “forever”.
He added: “For them to be so honest and understanding, I couldn’t ask for anything more at 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. I’d like to say a big thanks to Sean Dyche, someone that didn’t really know me, for this to be thrown on him and to be so understanding. Right now, it’s about getting back on the pitch and showing him what I can do.”
Alli said he was focusing on regaining fitness to be ready for “a big season” with Everton. Dele said he hoped his revelations would help others ask for help and feel inspired to change their lives.
He said: “People don’t need to fear change. Change is always hard, 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 positive things.”
EVERTON star Dele Alli deserves respect and gratitude for describing how he has battled years of childhood trauma and an addiction to sleeping pills.
At the age of six he was molested by a friend of his alcoholic mother and when he was 11 a thug dangled him over a bridge.
Britons in every neighbourhood are haunted by terrible experiences.This 27-year-old footballer has provided an example to follow by speaking up.
One of the greatest gifts friends can provide each other is a listening ear.We do not need to carry our burdens alone.