‘No one answers the phone to me anymore. I’m just going to keep calling people. I’m getting aired (ignored) again, innit?’
Dele Alli is livestreaming again. A skateboard, an array of expensive designer bags, and at least 48 pairs of shoes provide his backdrop. It is his third such broadcast in five days, one which will span almost five hours, as he reaches out for connection with his audience. And perhaps his past too.
This is the new day job for Dele, 30, who is training independently and has been without a club for 13 months. He has played just ten minutes of professional football since February 2023.
A sensation once hailed as the next Steven Gerrard or Frank Lampard of English football is watching clips of his worst miss (against Stoke in 2016, where he rounded goalkeeper Shay Given before hitting the post), showing off trinkets collected from the height of his playing days, and commenting on YouTube videos for his army of Twitch followers, of which there are 150,000 and counting.
Now he is running through his contacts book. At first, Alli looks deflated as nobody picks up. ‘I want to see who’s a real one,’ he says. ‘So many people are messaging me right now,’ he promises. ‘When’s the England game? Tomorrow? They’re probably in a meeting.’
Slowly but surely, his A-List cast of friends begin to pick up the phone. First there’s James Maddison, who answers at a concert and shouts ‘love you’. Then Eric Dier comes good from Monaco.
Dele Alli spends his days streaming to his growing audience on Twitch – in one broadcast he rang up his old football friends (Twitch: Dele)
The star has been showing off his personal trophies from about a decade ago to his followers (Twitch: Dele)
It is a far cry from his days dominating the pitch in the Premier League and Champions League
Jack Grealish, who’s out getting an Indian, picks up too. As does Tammy Abraham, who wants to join the stream when he’s in London. Ashley Cole pledges to sign Alli if he gets another managerial job.
The list goes on. Sergio Reguilon, Steven Bergwijn, Angry Ginge. Even the mother of YouTuber Danny Aarons, who is delighted to hear from Alli and insists: ‘Get it off your chest, you men don’t talk enough.’
Then there’s Harry Kane, who sounds a bit hesitant knowing he is live on a stream to thousands of viewers, and enquires, with a tinge of paternal care: ‘Working hard, I hope?’
‘Working hard and having fun,’ comes the reply from Alli.
Clearly there is much love for him among his footballing band of brothers – even if he struggles to get answers and the calls are awkward. Yet despite having more than ten million followers across his social media channels, Alli’s future on the pitch – where he belongs – remains shrouded in mystery.
Nobody really knows how good he is any more, or even what he is. For many, Alli exists in the realm of memory: his man-of-the-match performance against Real Madrid, that volley against Crystal Palace, Jose Mourinho’s prophetic warning to him about future regrets.
To predict what’s next, we subsist on clips of him doing pull-ups in the gym and performing skills on imaginary defenders before scoring into empty nets on soulless training pitches.
‘It’s been hard to see the demise of someone who had everything,’ a former England international tells Daily Mail Sport. ‘When it’s lasted so long, it’s almost impossible to get it back.
His brand still carries value – here he is seen modelling Louis Vuitton gear (Instagram: Dele)
He has been working hard in the gym and visited Marbella in the summer to train (Instagram: Dele)
‘The Dele that we all know, we’re thinking: “Where has he gone?” I think it’s a confidence thing.
‘I couldn’t watch the videos. I felt sorry for him. It made me feel really sad that it’s come to this. For his ability it made me feel: “Wow, is this where it’s come to?” I feel sorry that football has left him behind.
‘My advice would be don’t give up. He’s 30, he’s still got another five years. If Twitch relaxes him, do Twitch – we used to play on the PlayStation at England camps – but give 110 per cent in training.
‘Do I think he could get back to Dele at Spurs? Probably not. Do I think he could have a good career? Yeah, I do. He can be successful, but not at the highest level, because he’ll be seen as a risk.’
Alli once looked destined for a long career at the top. This was a man who racked up 269 appearances for Tottenham and 67 goals. In 2016-17, his best season, he scored 22 and assisted 13, striking up a scintillating partnership with Kane. England saw the incipient talent and came calling. He was capped 37 times, going to the 2016 European Championship and playing at the 2018 World Cup in Russia.
Things changed with the departure of Mauricio Pochettino in 2019. His replacement, Mourinho, branded Alli ‘f***ing lazy’ in front of the squad. Injuries and untold personal problems took their toll. Failed stints at Everton and Besiktas followed.
At Como, his last club, he was sent off within ten minutes of his debut, invoking such fury from manager Cesc Fabregas that he never played again and was banished from the squad until his release in September last year.
He once set an alarm every day to remind him of the 2026 World Cup. Now, he asks viewers to confirm when the next major international tournament is taking place.
Alli was sent off within 10 minutes of coming on for his Como debut in March 2025… and he hasn’t played a game since
The footballer was in a high-profile relationship with model Cindy Kimberly for three years
Regardless, Alli – who split from his model ex-girlfriend Cindy Kimberly after three years in 2025 – continues to put in the work. To the untrained eye, he remains in great shape. Over the summer he spent eight weeks at the Marbella Football Center, a high-end performance facility which hosted Aston Villa over the international break.
There he was overseen by renowned fitness coach Domenico Gurzi. On one of Alli’s recent posts, Gurzi waxed lyrical in the comments about his present form. ‘He is in top shape,’ wrote Gurzi. ‘He worked very hard every day. He is an unbelievably good player, has still got it. He is a top professional and focused.’
Back in England, he has been working with Connor Peters, a coach who has developed an understanding of Alli’s needs over the last couple of years.
Alli has been using the grounds at eighth-tier side Windsor & Eton to build his fitness, though the club failed to respond to Daily Mail Sport’s request for comment.
He was linked with a move to League Two Barnet, though any suggestions of him joining are wide of the mark. He recently posted footage of himself practising individually at their Hive training complex, but Daily Mail Sport understand that footage was actually from a training session last Christmas. Manager Dean Brennan is open to Alli joining his sessions, saying that ‘everyone deserves a second chance in life’, but no talks have taken place.
We understand he does want to break back into football, but is biding his time for the right opportunity.
The Dele brand clearly still carries cachet. In April, he was a special guest of Louis Vuitton for their hotel pop-up in Mayfair, central London. Weeks later, he was modelling for luxury footwear brand Numeris.
Fashion has always been one of his main passions. In 2016, aged just 20, he became an Adidas poster boy for £8million in a five-year deal. His first endorsement with them was at 16, when he was still at MK Dons.
‘It’s been hard to see the demise of someone who had everything,’ a former England international tells Daily Mail Sport
Alli, 30, racked up major losses at the Victoria Casino in London earlier this year
Almost half a decade after he left Tottenham, Alli is back residing in London, where he enjoys playing padel and eating at celebrity hotspot Novikov, which boasts an Italian and Asian menu where a bottle of whisky can set you back £8,000, and Japanese restaurant Roka.
In February, Daily Mail Sport revealed the darker side to this proximity to excess. We reported how Alli was a regular at late-night card sessions at The Victoria Casino, losing £150,000 in a matter of days.
‘As soon as he arrives at the casino, a message gets sent around saying: “The Dele is open for business” – and there’s a rush to join the game that he joins because we know there’s easy money to be made,’ a source said at the time.
It is the off-field wobbles which are holding him back in his mission to return to football, insiders feel. ‘Managers would be saying we can’t have that at our club, he’s not ready,’ our ex-England source says.
‘It’s a distraction in what people can write, then it affects the team, the manager, the fans.’
Alli should be afforded grace for the challenges he has overcome. In a heart-wrenching interview with Gary Neville in 2023, Alli revealed he was molested aged six, started smoking aged seven, and was exploited to deal drugs at eight.
His father, Kenny, left the country a week after he was born and his mother Denise had alcohol issues. During his career he has become addicted to sleeping pills, required rehab, and considered packing it all in as early as 24. In 2024, his close friend and fellow footballer George Baldock tragically died.
‘It’s always been me against myself in everything,’ he told Neville. ‘I was winning the fight, smiling, showing I was happy, but inside I was losing the battle. Trauma is trauma.
Alli’s interview with Gary Neville in 2023 revealed the extent of the trauma he has faced
‘I want to be a better player and a better person. I look back and think I did good, but I’m not satisfied. You can’t drive your car looking in the rear view mirror. You can’t hold on to things that have happened in the past.’
There is no shortage of people rooting for Alli, who was an absolute joy to watch at his best. Recent years in the wilderness should not cloud a career that saw him become a Champions League finalist and almost a Premier League winner. He has achieved more in the game than most could dream of.
Yet as he clocks in for each Twitch stream, turning up the rap music to dance and hype up the viewers, there is a sense of Alli being held back by his own freedom. It feels as if the last lights on his football career are flickering out.
‘We taking over the world or what?’ he asks his digital fanbase. Nobody knows what to say.
