Dele Alli set to pocket £8.3m from image rights wind-up as football career stalls

Dele Alli is set to receive up to £8.3 million in assets after placing his image rights company, Dele Alli Promotions, into liquidation. A Declaration of Solvency has been filed in connection with the wind-up, which comes despite the former Tottenham Hotspur and England midfielder being handed a £685,362 corporation tax bill by HMRC.

The 29-year-old is currently without a club after being released by Serie A side Como last year, having made only one appearance for Cesc Fabregas’ squad. His playing career has been in sharp decline for several years, but his financial portfolio tells a different story.

Alli’s business interests extend well beyond the image rights company. He owns six rental properties through a venture called Future Homes Investments, believed to be worth in excess of £1.5 million, and holds a stake in a separate entity, Dele Investments, valued at approximately £336,267. Together, these assets provide a substantial safety net as he weighs up his next move in football.

Off the pitch, Alli has spoken candidly about the personal struggles that shadowed his career. In a 2023 interview with Gary Neville, he revealed he had been sexually abused at the age of six, was sent to Nigeria to live with his father, and was subjected to further abuse after returning to the UK — including being hung off a bridge at 11 and being made to sell drugs at eight.

He also disclosed a long-running addiction to sleeping tablets that developed in response to the demands of professional football and unresolved trauma. “I got addicted to sleeping tablets and it’s probably a problem that not only I have,” he said. “With our schedule you have a game, you have to be up early in the morning to train, you have all the adrenaline and stuff so sometimes to take a sleeping tablet and be ready for the next day is fine. But when your dopamine system and you’re as broken as I am it can obviously have the reverse effect… I definitely abused them.”

Once regarded as one of English football’s brightest talents — a key figure in the Tottenham side built by Mauricio Pochettino and a member of the England squad that reached the 2018 World Cup semi-final — Alli’s trajectory since leaving Spurs has been a difficult one. The liquidation of Dele Alli Promotions marks the end of a significant chapter, but with several million pounds in assets and two active companies still trading, his financial future appears secure regardless of what happens on the pitch.