Dele Alli reveals her traumatic childhood: "At the age of seven I started smoking and at eight, I started dealing drugs"

the english footballer give it there revealed the problems he suffered during his childhood, in which he suffered abuse, began to “Smoking at the age of seven and at eight, dealing with drugs”, In addition to confessing that he fought a battle against mental health that almost removed him from professional football.

"My mother was an alcoholic, they sent me to Africa to live with their father to learn discipline, and then they sent me back. At the age of seven I started smoking and at eight, I started dealing drugs," Alli revealed on the podcast. The Overlap to the ex-footballer Gary Neville.

The midfielder revealed that he suffered sexual abuse as a child, before being adopted.

At eleven years old, a neighbor hung me from a bridge. At twelve, he adopted me into an amazing family, and I couldn't have asked for better people to do what they did for me. If God created people, it was them.

Another of Alli's confessions was his addiction to sleeping pills, a problem suffered by "more people than you think" in the world of football.

Taking a sleeping pill and getting ready for the next day is fine, but when you're devastated like me, it can obviously have the opposite effect, because it works for the problems you want to treat.

There he confessed that at only 24 years old he considered retiring, despite living a good football moment. “It sounds dramatic, but I was literally looking in the mirror and wondering if I could retire now, at 24, doing what I love. That hurt a lot, it was another thing that I had to carry, ”she expressed.

When his adventure in Turkish football ended, on loan last year at the Besiktasthe one from Milton Keynes returned to the Evertonbut his situation was very delicate and he entered a rehabilitation center to improve his mental health.

I was probably making the most important decision of my life, but I'm glad I did and, to be honest, I couldn't expect it to turn out the way it did.

Below you can find the full interview.

(With information from Europe Press)