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In Profile: Dele Alli

Dele Alli sealed a January 2022 deadline-day transfer to Everton after scoring 67 goals and adding 61 assists in 269 appearances across seven years with Tottenham Hotspur.

Midfielder Alli has 37 England caps and was a pivotal figure in the Three Lions’ 2018 World Cup semi-final campaign.

He scored in the quarter-final victory over Sweden and started and finished the extra-time last-four clash with Croatia.

Dele joined Spurs in February 2015 after making his name as a precocious teenager in League One with MK Dons.

The player was immediately loaned back to MK Dons to complete a campaign when he scored 16 goals and assisted nine to aid his club’s promotion to the Championship.

He needed only two Tottenham appearances – both off the bench – to get off the mark, Alli coming on to score at Leicester City at the outset of a season the teenager finished armed with multiple individual prizes.

Dele was named 2015/16 PFA Young Player of the Year for his 10-goal Premier League haul, which included a sparkling solo effort at Crystal Palace that was rewarded with Match of the Day’s goal of the season prize.

The young midfielder made his England debut in November 2015, only three months after first playing for Spurs, and followed his substitute’s role against Spain by marking his first start with a Wembley goal in a victory over France four days later.

Dele retained his young player crown in 2016/17, directly contributing to 27 goals – scoring 18 – in 37 Premier League games, as Tottenham finished seven points behind champions Chelsea in second.

He was also on target three times in Spurs’ 2017 FA Cup semi-final run – before coming back for another season when Dele contributed to more than one goal every other game.

The player, who joined MK Dons aged 11 and made his senior debut at 16 – he scored 24 times and assisted 17 goals in 88 matches before agreeing a transfer from his first club, aged 18 – hit nine goals and assisted 11 in 36 Premier League games in 2017/18.

Tottenham, meanwhile, were increasingly established in the Champions League and Dele netted twice in a rip-roaring 3-1 White Hart Lane group-stage victory over defending champions Real Madrid.

Dele returned from his World Cup exploits to play a key role in Spurs’ advance to the 2019 Champions League final, notably creating two goals in his side’s astonishing, last-ditch semi-final comeback to break Ajax hearts.

He scored 13 Premier League goals and assisted seven between the start of 2018/19 and end of 2019/20.

Dele was part of the England side that played at the Nations League finals in 2019 and those 37 caps have yielded three goals and seven assists.

The player was primarily used in the Europa League in his final full Tottenham season – but started the closing five Premier League games after caretaker boss Ryan Mason replaced Jose Mourinho.

He scored one goal for Spurs – a decisive penalty in a single-goal victory at Wolverhampton Wanderers – in eight Premier League starts in the opening half of 2021/22.

Dele, who represented England at Under-17, Under-18, Under-19 and Under-21 levels, became manager Frank Lampard’s first permanent signing when he completed his switch from the capital in the final hours of the winter transfer window.