Seven years after his first visit to Wembley as an MK Dons fan, Dele Alli is preparing himself for the “surreal” prospect of making his England debut at the famous stadium.
Alli, who was playing in League One just six months ago, could earn his first England cap against Estonia on Friday.
The midfielder’s only previous visit to the home of football came in 2008 when he sat in the stands as a 12-year-old boy watching his hometown club MK Dons beat Grimsby in the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy final.
An impressive crowd of 56,618 attended that match, but over 80,000 people will be there on Friday to potentially witness Alli play his first game for England.
“I haven’t played at Wembley yet, it would be a dream come true to play there for England,” the 19-year-old Tottenham midfielder stated.
“I went to watch MK at Wembley in the JPT years ago. They won it, so I only have good memories so far. It would be surreal to play at Wembley. I’m really looking forward to it, to the challenge. I’ll just keep working as hard as I can in training and hopefully I can get some minutes on Friday.”
Tottenham signed Alli from MK Dons in January and then loaned him back to the then third-tier club for the rest of the season.
The teenager has had little trouble adapting to life in the Barclays Premier League.
He scored on his second appearance for Spurs and has played in seven out of eight league games for the club this term.
Alli was preparing for a Europa League game last week when Mauricio Pochettino told him he had been named in Roy Hodgson’s squad for the double-header against Estonia and Lithuania.
“The manager at Tottenham spoke to me the day before we played Monaco and asked if I wanted to play for the Under-19s in the Euros,” Alli said.
“I obviously said I would if I could, but I thought I was too old. When the senior squad was officially announced I was in the hotel in Monaco preparing for the game so didn’t want to think about it too much and didn’t want to look at my phone. I had a look after the game, though, and all my friends had texted me and I spoke to my family straight away.”
