Banned for life: Dele Alli reveals Tesco shoplifting past as Barnet eye free-agent signing

Dele Alli has revealed he carries a lifetime ban from Tesco, the result of shoplifting during a troubled childhood that has seen him speak openly about sexual abuse, drug-running at the age of eight, and being adopted at 12.

The former Tottenham and England midfielder recounted the moment the ban became impossible to hide, telling the I’m Just Bait Instagram channel that team-mates once handed him money to grab energy drinks from a store on the way to training. Alli sat silently in the back of the car until the request became unavoidable. “I was like, ‘I can’t’,” he recalled. “They was like, ‘Why?’ I was like, ‘I’m banned for life.’” When pressed on what he had stolen, he was blunt: “Because I was robbing the place up. Everything, bro.”

Tesco has been contacted for comment.

The anecdote is the latest candid disclosure from a player whose career trajectory has been as turbulent as his early life. A key figure in England’s run to the 2018 World Cup semi-final, Alli left Spurs in January 2022 and has since failed to hold down a regular starting role at Everton, Besiktas (on loan) or Como. He is currently a free agent at 30.

After spending time training at Spurs last season to rebuild his fitness, Alli has more recently been working at The Hive, the north London base of League Two leaders Barnet. He shared footage of himself in shooting practice there, and has since been invited to train formally with the club.

Barnet manager Dean Brennan has made no secret of his admiration. “If my owner said to me, ‘You could sign Dele Alli’, I’d run the London Marathon for him — even though I haven’t run for about 20 years,” Brennan told The Sun. “Whatever I had to do to sign Dele Alli, I’d take it because he is a fantastic talent.”

Brennan acknowledged the difficult path that has brought Alli to this point but remained convinced the quality is still there. “He still has that special quality but football moves so fast and the game’s not showing him any love,” he said. “I’d absolutely snap your hands off if Dele was interested and take him all day long. We’ll see what happens.”

Both Mauricio Pochettino, who developed Alli at Spurs, and Karl Robinson, who managed him as a teenager at MK Dons, have previously described him as an exceptional talent. Whether Barnet can coax that talent back to the surface in the fourth tier remains to be seen.