Dele Alli opens Besiktas account to end 13-month goal drought

Dele Alli opened his Besiktas account in a 3-2 Super Lig win over Ankaragucu on Sunday, ending the former Tottenham midfielder’s 13-month wait for a competitive goal.

Alli left Spurs to sign a two-and-a-half-year deal with Everton in January, but he only made one Premier League start for the Toffees before heading to Turkey on loan last month.

Having made his Besiktas bow against Sivasspor last week, Alli got on the scoresheet on his second appearance, firing Valerien Ismael’s men into a 2-1 first-half lead.

The 26-year-old raced onto a knock-down from Burnley loanee Wout Weghorst to side-foot home after 35 minutes, scoring his first league goal since he converted a penalty in Tottenham’s 1-0 win at Wolves in August 2021.

Alli’s goal came from his first attempt in the match, while Weghorst has now recorded a league-high four assists this season – each of them for a different player (Alli, Jackson Muleka, Georges-Kevin Nkoudou and Rachid Ghezzal).

Alli scored 51 goals in 181 Premier League appearances for Spurs, although over half of that tally (28) came in his first two seasons (10 in 2015-16, 18 in 2016-17). His last open-play goal in the English top flight came in January 2020.

1 – @Besiktas midfielder Dele Alli scored his first Süper Lig goal with his first shot against Ankaragücü. . pic.twitter.com/YD9rhAbwvz

— OptaCan (@OptaCan) September 4, 2022