England has produced some excellent young players in recent years. The ‘Golden Generation’ of English football that produced players like Beckham, Owen, Gerrard, Lampard, Terry et al are gone, apart from Wayne Rooney, after failing to bring glory to the Three Lions. Now the torch has been passed to the younger generation of English players and the poster boy of the new era of English football is certainly Spurs starlet Dele Alli.
Still only 20 years of age, Dele Alli has become a key member of the Spurs and the English national team since he moved to White Hart Lane from MK Dons. His future seems to be bright for the attacker from Milton Keynes and his rise to distinction in such a short amount of time has not gone overlooked by arguably the most prestigious club in the world, Real Madrid.
ESPN claims that Real Madrid have a long-standing interest in the 20-year-old and continue to watch developments of the Englishman. Los Blancos signed another top British talent in Gareth Bale for a then club-record deal. A few seasons before that, Luka Modric was lured from Spurs to Santiago Bernabeu. Alli’s fortunes could be the same.
Before the summer of 2015, Alli was just a promising young player who used to play in League One for MK Dons. Spurs probably had signed him in January 2015 for the future but if you have the talent, you will get you chance no matter how young you are and Mauricio Pochettino did not fail to recognise that he signed a gem of a midfielder in the Englishman.
Alli joined Spurs in the summer of 2015, six months after the North Londoners signed him and during the time, he was playing for his former club MK Dons on loan as a part of the deal. Injuries to then key players Nabil Bentaleb and Ryan Mason at Tottenham opened the door for him to first-team football and once he got that, he made sure that Pochettino found no reason to drop him.
Alli is more of a complete midfielder who would be a perfect player for Zidane at Real Madrid. He can play as a number eight, number ten or a number six and has a brilliant eye for goals. He regularly manages to find pockets of space behind defenders and is a pretty hard-working player too. The Englishman can play killer splitting opponents’ defence open and can also dribble his way through a tight defence. You will rarely come across an English midfielder with better technique than Alli.
Of course, Alli will command a massive fee considering his young age and the promise he ha shown but he could be a long-term success at Santiago Bernabeu. Zidane will not regret splashing the cash on him.
