Milton Keynes Dons Early career Dele joined the youth system at
Milton Keynes Dons when he was 11 years old after playing for City Colts. 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. His first touch in professional football was a back-heeled pass. He made his league debut in a 2–3 defeat to
Coventry City at home on 29 December, where he played 71 minutes before being replaced by
Zeli Ismail. His only other league appearance in the
2012–13 Football League One season, came as a second-half substitute for
Patrick Bamford in the last match of the season, a 2–0 win over
Stevenage at
Broadhall Way.
2013–14 season The 2013–14 season saw Dele break into the MK Dons first team on a regular basis. He started the Dons' first league match of the season, a 0–0 draw away at
Shrewsbury Town. In his first
Football League Trophy appearance, Dele scored to help MK Dons beat
Northampton Town 2–0 and thus progress to the second round of the tournament. On 28 September, Dele scored his first professional league goal in a 4–1 win against Stevenage. After injury setbacks in late 2013, Dele subsequently established himself as a first-choice player in 2014. 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. On 11 March 2014, against
Notts County at
Meadow Lane, aged 17 years and 11 months old, he scored a hat-trick to guide the Dons to a 3–1 victory. His next and final goal of the 2013–14 season, came on 5 April against Coventry City at the
Sixfields Stadium; Dele struck a volley from 25 yards out as MK Dons defeated Coventry 2–1. He made 37 appearances in all competitions during the 2013–14 season, scoring seven times, with 33 appearances and six goals in the league.
2014–15 season in 2015 With the departure of Gleeson to
Birmingham City in June 2014, Dele became the first-choice central midfield partner to
Darren Potter. He started the season brightly, playing the first league match of the season as the Dons overcame a 2–0 deficit to defeat Gillingham, 4–2. He then helped the team to a 3–1 win over arch-enemies,
AFC Wimbledon, in the League Cup first round. His first goal of the 2014–15 season came in the first away league match, a 3–2 defeat to
Peterborough United, where he scored a tap-in from
Will Grigg's deflected shot. On 26 August, Dele played the full 90 minutes in the
League Cup second round as MK Dons recorded a historic 4–0 win over
Manchester United. 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. In the next match, Dele continued his rich vein of form with a goal curled in from the edge of the box in a 2–0 win over
Crawley Town. After the international break, he played 77 minutes in the 5–3 win against Barnsley, assisting the Dons second goal and scoring their third goal himself with a chip over the Barnsley goalkeeper. He was chosen as the
Football League Young Player of the Month for August. Two days later, in a match against
Crewe Alexandra, he scored a hat-trick and achieved one assist in what turned out to be a 6–1 victory for the Dons. It was the second hat-trick of his career and the first he achieved at home, which also led to him winning the Man of the Match award.
Tottenham Hotspur On 2 February 2015, Dele 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.
Loan to Milton Keynes Dons Following his transfer to Tottenham Hotspur, Dele was immediately loaned back to MK Dons for the remainder of the 2014–15 season. 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.
2015–16 season in 2016 On 8 August 2015, Dele 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. Two weeks later, he scored his first goal for the club after coming on for
Christian Eriksen in the 1–1 draw against
Leicester City. On 13 September, Dele made his first start for Tottenham in a 1–0 win against
Sunderland at the
Stadium of Light. On 2 November, he started and scored the second goal in an eventual 3–1 win over
Aston Villa. 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. On 5 December 2015, he scored his third goal for Tottenham in the 2015–16 campaign in a 1–1 draw against
West Bromwich Albion at
The Hawthorns. Following an impressive start to his Premier League career scoring five goals and making three assists in his first 18 league matches, he was rewarded with a new long-term contract until 2021 on 12 January. Eleven days later he scored a 25-yard volley in a 3–1 win at
Crystal Palace;
BBC Sport pundit and former Spurs player
Garth Crooks wrote "I've seen some glorious goals scored in my time watching football matches but I doubt whether I will see a goal scored with such individual flair, and by a 19-year-old, as Dele Alli's goal at
Selhurst Park – it was sheer class". On 13 April, he was named on the six-man shortlist for 2015–16's
PFA Young Player of the Year. On 18 April 2016, he scored his first brace for Tottenham in a 0–4 away win at
Stoke City, reaching ten goals in his debut Premier League season. He was voted the season's PFA Young Player of the Year on 24 April. On 28 April, Dele 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. He later apologised for the incident on Twitter, stating, "Gutted that my season is over. Shouldn't have reacted like I did. Will learn from this and come back stronger."
2016–17 season Ahead of the season, he changed his kit name to Dele, saying that he had "no connection" to his legal surname due to his separation from his mother and lack of relations with his father. His first goal of the season came in a 4–0 win against Stoke City on 10 September 2016. Four days later, he made his
UEFA Champions League debut in a 1–2 loss to
AS Monaco at
Wembley Stadium. His first Champions League goal came against
CSKA Moscow at the same stadium on 7 December 2016. Between 18 December 2016 and 21 January 2017, Dele scored eight goals in six league matches, earning the award of
Premier League Player of the Month award for January 2017. This included three consecutive braces against
Southampton,
Watford and
Chelsea. On 23 February, Dele received his first red card for a dangerous tackle on
Brecht Dejaegere in Tottenham's
UEFA Europa League draw with
K.A.A. Gent which saw Spurs eliminated at the
Round of 32 stage of the competition. On 20 April 2017, Dele was again named in the
PFA Team of the Year, having been included in the League One selection for 2015 and the Premier League selection in 2016. On 23 April, he was named the PFA Young Player of the Year, the day after scoring in Tottenham's 4–2
FA Cup semi-final loss to rivals Chelsea at Wembley Stadium.
2017–18 season Dele scored his first goal of the season in the opening game of the
2017–18 season away at Newcastle that finished in a 2–0 win. However, he was criticized for his inconsistency this season, failing to perform as well as the previous season. On 1 April 2018, Dele scored twice in the away fixture against Chelsea, helping Tottenham win 3–1, which was their first win in 28 years at
Stamford Bridge.
2018–19 season On 11 August 2018, Dele scored his first goal of the
season, scoring the winning goal in the opening league match against
Newcastle United. On 26 September, Dele was named as
captain for Tottenham's
EFL Cup third round tie with
Watford. The tie, played at
Stadium MK due to delays in the completion of Tottenham's
new stadium, marked Dele's return to the home ground of his boyhood club
Milton Keynes Dons, and the return to his home town of
Milton Keynes for the first time as a Tottenham player. The tie finished 2–2, with Dele scoring both a
penalty in normal time and the winning penalty in a deciding
penalty shoot-out. In October 2018, Dele signed a new six-year deal at Tottenham, which would keep him at the club until 2024. He also scored in the 3–1 home win against Chelsea, which was his sixth goal in five games against Chelsea, and the first defeat for Chelsea in the Premier League this season. In January 2019, he was ruled out until March with a hamstring injury.
2019–20 season Dele missed the start of the season due to a hamstring injury. He returned to the team in the North London Derby on 1 September 2019, coming on as a substitute. He scored his first goal of the season in the match against Watford, drawing 1–1. In November 2019,
Mauricio Pochettino was dismissed by the club to be replaced by
José Mourinho. Mourinho played Dele as an attacking player just behind
Harry Kane, reverting to his earlier position after playing in a deeper midfield role the previous two years. According to Mourinho, "Dele is not a midfield player". The attacking role gave Dele greater freedom to score, and he scored three goals in his first three games under Mourinho, two of which came in the game against
Bournemouth. In February 2020, Dele posted a video on his Snapchat account in which he appeared to mock an Asian man while joking about the
COVID-19 outbreak. The video showed Dele wearing a face mask at
Heathrow Airport while waiting for his flight to
Dubai, before the camera moved to show a man of Asian appearance before zooming in on a bottle of antiseptic handwash, seemingly suggesting the Asian man in the terminal could be infected with the virus. The video was captioned: "The virus gunna have to be faster than that to catch me." In June 2020, Dele 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. Dele was suspended in June 2020 for one match by the Football Association, making him ineligible for Tottenham Hotspur's Premier League game at home against Manchester United on 19 June. He was also fined £50,000 and ordered to undertake an education course. Most of his starts in games were in the
UEFA Europa League, and he scored his first goal of the season in the
Europa League play-off match against
Maccabi Haifa on 1 October 2020 to cap a 7–2 win for Tottenham. In the
Europa last-32 match against
Wolfsberg on 24 February 2021, he scored a notable goal with a
bicycle kick, starting a 4–0 rout with two further assists. 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. He started seven Premier League games this season. He continued to struggle to regain his form. Manager
Nuno Espírito Santo tried to bring him back into the squad, which proved short-lived as Nuno was replaced by
Antonio Conte in early November. Dele failed to find a role under the new manager, and became a fringe player in Conte's plan for Tottenham. After starting only eight league games (two under Conte) in the 2021–22 campaign, Dele was made available for transfer by Tottenham in the January 2022 window.
Everton Dele moved to fellow Premier League side
Everton on 31 January 2022 on an initial
free transfer, which could have risen to £40 million if certain performance benchmarks were met. The first £10 million would be due after 20 appearances for Everton. He signed a two-and-a-half-year contract, running until the end of the 2023–24 season. Upon signing for the club, Dele cited the opportunity to work under new manager
Frank Lampard as a major reason for joining Everton. He made his debut on 8 February as a late substitute in a 3–1 loss against
Newcastle United. Despite a notable cameo in Everton's 3–2 comeback win over Crystal Palace he failed to make an impact at Everton. In the 2021–22 season, he only made 11 appearances with only one start. In the next season Dele played in just two matches, ending his Everton stint with 13 matches and zero goal contributions.
Loan to Beşiktaş On 25 August 2022, Dele joined Turkish team
Beşiktaş on loan for the remainder of the 2022–23 season with an option to buy for the Turkish club. He scored his first goal in over a year in his second appearance for the club, helping the club win 3–2 against
Ankaragücü on 4 September 2022. When
Şenol Güneş took over as the new head coach on 28 October, he stated that Dele was "below expectations in terms of efficiency", pointing to his struggles for Beşiktaş. Dele did not play any games for Beşiktaş after 26 February 2023, having scored 2 goals in 13 games for the club until then. In April he returned to Everton for an assessment of a hip injury he picked up, while Beşiktaş sought to cancel his season-long loan.
Return to Everton from loan Having sustained a groin injury in the later months of 2023, he did not make a single appearance for Everton in the 2023–24 season. Although Dele's contract with Everton expired at the end of June 2024, he continued to train at the club and complete his rehabilitation work with the club's medical staff.
Como On 19 January 2025, Dele joined Italian
Serie A club
Como on a free transfer on an 18-month deal until the end of the 2025–26 season. While Como manager
Cesc Fàbregas told reporters on 19 February that Dele may not make his debut for the club until later in the season or even not until the 2025–26 season, saying "He's working off the pitch at the moment. I don't want to put extra pressure on him, he hasn't played for months...We need patience to see him back on the pitch: please, let's stay calm. The last few months will be used to get back in shape for next season", Dele was included in his first matchday squad for Como as an unused substitute for a 2–1 Serie A loss to
AS Roma on 2 March. On 15 March 2025, Dele made his debut for Como against
AC Milan in the league, marking his first match since February 2023. However, his return to the pitch was brief, as he came on as a substitute for
Lucas Da Cunha in the 81st minute, and was
sent off ten minutes later for a clumsy challenge on fellow Englishman
Ruben Loftus-Cheek after a
VAR check upgraded his initial yellow card. In August 2025, it was reported that Dele was looking for a new club after being told he was not wanted for the upcoming season. He was released in September 2025, after just one appearance for the Italian side. Despite rumors of interest from clubs in
La Liga and the
EFL Championship, Dele remained a free agent. ==International career==