Everton midfielder, Dele Alli has recounted on how he was molested by his mother’s friend and engaged in smoking at just seven years.
Speaking with Gary Neville on The Overlap, the former Tottenham Hotspur star gave an insight into some of the disturbing incidents that have affected both his life and career.
“[My childhood is] something I have not really spoken about that much, to be honest,” Alli said.
“So, at six, I was molested by my mum’s friend, who was at the house a lot. My mum was an alcoholic, and that happened at six.
“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 would not stop a kid on a bike, so I rode around with my football, and then underneath, I would have the drugs, that was eight. Eleven, I was hung off a bridge by a guy from the next estate, a man.
“Twelve, I was adopted – and from then, it was like – I was adopted by an amazing family like I said, I could not have asked for better people to do what they would do for me.
“If God created people, it was them. They were amazing, and they have helped me a lot.
“I tried to be the best kid I could be for them. I stayed with them from 12 and then started playing first-team, professionally, at 16. It all sort of took off from there.”
5 Comments
Wow, terrible childhood this poor guy went thru. Stay strong and God bless.
Everytime I read this guys story, I am always taken over with compassion for him. You can easily see, that money isn’t anything to him, but a void only parental love could have filled.
Just imagine a 6 year old child with no responsible parents to run into their loving hands like a child, especially in this uk/western world, where neighbourhood is non existent. It’s the most disturbing experience for any child.
Lots of these things happen in these places ; I know of a year old child who used to come back from school to meet mum and dad lying ragged with drugs,and with no other siblings, he does everything himself; like feeding on cornflakes, until social service came to remove him from that home. It took some many months of monitoring to truly see what that child was going through.
,,,, meant 7year old…
Very unfortunate indeed! How sad it is when a child is abused and neglected by the very people who should be protecting and taking care of him/her.
Them no dey ever like to mention NIGERIA instead them go say AFRICA in place of NIGERIA… WHY? Or them think say AFRICA na COUNTRY?