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Hollywood star Mark Wahlberg has suggested he may try to entice Dele Alli into becoming an action hero when his Tottenham playing days are over.
Alli, 20, signed a double-your-money six-year Tottenham contract extension until 2022 on Monday after becoming one of Mauricio Pochettino’s key players at White Hart Lane.
The midfielder had signed a new five-year contract worth £25,000-a-week in January, but it is a measure of how highly Pochettino regards Alli that Spurs have further extended his deal and significantly increased his wages.
While Alli’s playing career is likely to go on for more than a decade, American actor Wahlberg – star of the Transformers franchise – joked that the England international has a future on the silver screen in Los Angeles.
Read more Dele Alli doubles his money with new six-year Tottenham contract
“I think he plays until his mid-30s and then he comes to Hollywood, and we make him an action hero,” he told Tottenham on a recent trip to White Hart Lane.
“We’re going to start him out with action movies while he’s young and then we’ll put him in some romantic comedies, some drama.”
Despite his days as a hip-hop artist with Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch, Wahlberg says he can’t help Alli if he decides to try his hand at singing.
Dele Alli at 20
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“I don’t know if he can sing,” he added. “I don’t do musicals so I wouldn’t steer him in the musical direction!”
But Alli could well ignore Wahlberg’s musical advice after revealing that he is prone to singing his very own chant in the shower.
‘We’ve got Alli, Dele Alli’ lyrics
“We’ve got Alli, Dele Alli,
“I just don’t think you understand,
He only cost five mill,
He’s better than Ozil,
“We’ve got Dele Alli.”
When asked how it felt to hear 80,000 Spurs fans chanting his name during Champions League matches at Wembley, Alli replied: “It makes the hairs stand up on your arms, it’s unbelievable.
“The fans like that song as well, so do I – it’s a good song, I like it!”
When pressed on whether he had ever sung the song himself, Alli joked: “In the shower, yeah!”