Demi Akarakiri Set for Serie A Move to Cagliari

Demi Akarakiri is walking away from Everton before most supporters ever got the chance to see what he could become. Cagliari, though, believe they already know.

The 18-year-old midfielder is closing in on a move to the Sardinian club, with reports in Italy claiming he has already completed a medical in Rome and is poised to sign a five-year deal. For a player who only arrived at Finch Farm in 2024, it marks a rapid and decisive change of direction.

The first hint came not from a club statement, but from Akarakiri himself. A post on his Instagram account carried a clear “thank you” to Everton, a farewell message that felt more like closure than speculation.

Everton had publicly left the door open. On June 10, as they confirmed they were still in talks with Idrissa Gueye over his future, the club announced that Akarakiri had been offered a new contract, alongside Melvin Matos and Rocco Lambert. At the same time, they revealed that fellow Under-18s players Goodness Gospel-Eze, Louis Poland, Charlie Stewart and Kean Wren would depart when their deals expired at the end of June.

Akarakiri, though, has chosen a different route. A Londoner who spent a decade in Arsenal’s academy before joining Everton, he is clearly unwilling to wait in the queue for senior minutes on Merseyside. Cagliari, who finished 14th in Serie A last season under Fabio Pisacane, are offering something far more tempting: a fast track.

Italian outlet Corriere dello Sport, relayed by Sport Witness, reported that the teenager underwent his medical on Thursday and is expected to put pen to paper today. Inside the club, the move is being treated as a statement of intent. The signing of Akarakiri is described as “a significant coup” for new sporting director Pietro Accardi, a symbol of a strategy built on snapping up young talent at low cost and selling high once they explode.

Cagliari are not hiding their ambition for him, either. President Tommaso Giulini has openly hinted that this is not a simple youth-team addition, stressing that a teenager arriving from the Premier League is not crossing to Italy just to play academy football. The pitch is clear: come now, and you will be in and around the senior matchday squad.

For Everton, it is a familiar modern frustration: years of groundwork at elite academies in England, and a player leaves just as he edges towards the spotlight. For Akarakiri, it is a gamble that could define his career before it has even properly begun.

If Cagliari are right, this is the kind of deal that can reshape a club’s future as much as a player’s.