The Everton footballer recounted his difficult childhood and his recent difficulties in an interview for Gary Neville’s The Overlap podcast: “I was using sleeping pills and alcohol to numb feelings, I decided to go to the clinic because I felt I was losing the battle. I thank the club that supported me”
Abuses, a difficult childhood between drugs and violence and the recent decision to be admitted to a clinic to detoxify. Everton midfielder Dele Alli revealed himself in a touching interview with Gary Neville on The Overlap podcast. The player revealed that he was abused at the age of six and dealt drugs when he was eight. All of this was before he was adopted by the Hickford family. “When I was six I was molested by a friend of my mother’s. My mother was an alcoholic. I was sent to Africa to learn discipline and then I was sent back. At seven I started smoking, at eight I started dealing drugs. An elderly person told me they wouldn’t stop a child on a bicycle, so I went around with my ball and kept the drugs underneath. At eleven I was also hung from a bridge by a man. Then at 12 I was adopted. I was adopted by an amazing family. I couldn’t have asked for better people, they helped me so much.”
the decision
—
A difficult childhood that affected his character and his recent difficulties. Last year he was on loan at Besiktas: “When I got back I found out I needed an operation. I was in a very difficult moment mentally, I had gotten into the habit of using sleeping pills or alcohol to numb my feelings. I’m not the ‘only one who does, is a much more widespread problem than you think”. It was the straw that broke the camel’s back and Alli decided to face the problem by going to a specialized clinic from which he left last month: “Even if I masked what I felt inside I was losing the battle. So, I went there, I went there for six weeks and Everton were fantastic, you know. They supported me 100% and I will be forever grateful.”
© REPRODUCTION RESERVED