Everton's Dele Alli has revealed that he experienced sexual abuse at the age of six and engaged in drug dealing just two years later in an emotional tell-all interview today. Alli additionally opened up about his struggle with addiction to sleeping pills during his career.
Alli was seen as one of England's hottest prospects at one, but after a series of poor displays and failed loan moves to Turkey and Everton, the former Spurs player has decided to open up about his experiences outside of football.
During an emotional interview on The Overlap podcast with Gary Neville, the 27-year-old said, "My mum was an alcoholic. I was sent to Africa (to stay with his father) to learn discipline, and then I was sent back. At seven, I started smoking, at eight, I started dealing drugs."
"Eleven, I was hung off a bridge by a guy from the next estate. Twelve, I was adopted – and from then, I was adopted by an amazing family – I couldn’t have asked for better people to do what they’d done for me. If God created people, it was them."
"There were a number of times my adopted family and my brother – you know, it makes me sad – they would take me to rooms crying, asking me to just speak to them, tell them what I'm thinking, how I'm feeling, and I just couldn't do it because I wanted to deal with it by myself."
The Englishman also explained his relationship with sleeping tablets, which started off with the best intentions but turned into a full-blown problem.
"I got addicted to sleeping tablets, and it's probably a problem that not only I have, I think it's something that's going around more than people realize in football," he added. "I think, without me realizing it – the things I was doing to numb the feelings I had... I didn’t realize I was doing it for that purpose, whether it be drinking or whatever."
"I don't want to talk about numbers, but it was definitely way too much, and there were some scary moments I had."
"To take a sleeping tablet and be ready for the next day is fine, but when you're broken as I am, it can obviously have the reverse effect because it does work for the problems you want to deal with."
"That is the problem – it works until it doesn't. So yes, I definitely abused them too much. It is scary, now I'm out of it and I look back on it."
The full interview can be seen here.
