Bamidele Jermaine "Dele" Alli (/ˈdɛli ˈæli/ DEL-ee AL-ee;[4] born 11 April 1996) is an English professional footballer who plays as an attacking midfielder for Serie A club Como.

[5] He made his debut for the first team as a sixteen-year-old on 2 November 2012, coming on as a 64th-minute substitute for Jay O'Shea in a 0–0 draw with Southern Football League club Cambridge City in the FA Cup first round at Milton Road.

[10] In his first Football League Trophy appearance, Alli scored to help MK Dons beat Northampton Town 2–0 and thus progress to the second round of the tournament.

He scored the opening goal in the 3–2 win over Shrewsbury Town at Stadium MK on 11 January, with a header from Stephen Gleeson's pinpoint pass.

[13] On 11 March 2014, against Notts County at Meadow Lane, aged 17 years and 11 months old, Alli scored a hat-trick to guide the Dons to a 3–1 victory.

[19] On 26 August, Alli played the full 90 minutes in the League Cup second round as MK Dons recorded a historic 4–0 win over Manchester United.

[20] It was reported that numerous scouts from top clubs across Europe attended the match to watch him play, including representatives from Bayern Munich and Liverpool.

[25] On 2 February 2015, Alli signed for Premier League club Tottenham Hotspur in the last hours of the mid-season transfer window on a five-and-a-half-year deal for an initial fee of £5 million.

[27] The season ended on 3 May with Milton Keynes Dons promoted automatically to the Championship as runners-up behind Bristol City, after a 5–1 home win over relegated Yeovil Town.

[28] On 8 August 2015, Alli made his Tottenham debut against Manchester United in the Premier League as a substitute in a 1–0 defeat away at Old Trafford, playing the last 13 minutes in place of Eric Dier.

[32] Six days later he started his first North London Derby alongside fellow England youngster Dier in central midfield, and was awarded Man of the Match in the 1–1 draw between rivals Arsenal and Tottenham.

[37] On 18 April 2016, Alli scored his first brace for Tottenham in a 0–4 away win at Stoke City,[38] reaching ten goals in his debut Premier League season.

[40] On 28 April, Alli was banned by the Football Association for three matches, effectively ending his Premier League season, for an off-the-ball incident against West Bromwich Albion in which he punched midfielder Claudio Yacob in the stomach.

"[41] Ahead of the season, Alli changed his kit name to Dele, saying that he had "no connection" to his legal surname due to his separation from his mother.

[46] On 23 February, Alli received his first red card for a dangerous tackle on Brecht Dejaegere in Tottenham's UEFA Europa League draw with K.A.A.

[50] On 23 April, he was named the PFA Young Player of the Year,[51] the day after scoring in Tottenham's 4–2 FA Cup semi-final loss to rivals Chelsea at Wembley Stadium.

"[69] In June 2020, Alli was found guilty of an "aggravated breach" of the FA rule that includes a reference to race, colour, ethnic origin and/or nationality, and was judged to have used an "unacceptable racist stereotype" by the regulatory commission.

[75][76] He made his first start in six months in the Premier League on 4 March, in the match against Fulham that ended in a 1–0 win when his shot at goal was deflected off a defender for an own-goal.

[78] Alli moved to fellow Premier League side Everton on 31 January 2022 on an initial free transfer,[83] which could rise to £40 million if certain performance benchmarks are met.

Upon signing for the club, Alli cited the opportunity to work under new manager Frank Lampard as a major reason for joining Everton.

[89][90] When Şenol Güneş took over as new head coach on 28 October, he stated that Alli was "below expectations in terms of efficiency," pointing to his struggles for Beşiktaş.

[94][95] While Alli's contract with Everton expired at the end of June 2024, he continued to train at the club and did rehabilitation work with medical staff.

[101] However, on 1 October of that year, he was included in Roy Hodgson's England squad for the final UEFA Euro 2016 qualifying matches against Estonia and Lithuania.

[103] On 17 November 2015, Alli made his first start for the England senior team, scoring the opening goal from a long range shot to beat Spurs teammate, goalkeeper Hugo Lloris in a 2–0 win against France at Wembley Stadium.

[106] On 7 July, Alli scored the second goal of the game in a 2–0 win over Sweden in the quarter-finals of the competition, as England reached the semi-finals for the first time in 28 years.

[117][118][119][120][121] In 2018, Alli was considered the world's most expensive midfielder from a transfer value perspective by the CIES;[122] his form faded, however, in subsequent seasons, resulting in him losing his place in the England team in 2019 and becoming a fringe player for Spurs in the following years.

[123] In 2022, after Alli was loaned to Beşiktaş from Everton, Phil McNulty described his career trajectory as a "dramatic decline... from the golden boy of English football to lost talent".

[127][128] At the age of nine, he moved to Nigeria with his father, where he spent two years in an international school, before returning to Milton Keynes to live with his mother.

[127][132] In the summer of 2016, Alli announced that he would stop having his surname on match shirts, instead opting for "Dele", since he felt no connection with his biological father's family.