The 30-year-old midfielder has signed a two-year contract with the Sardinian club for an undisclosed fee, returning to a league he sampled during a season-long loan at Sampdoria in 2022-23, before Leicester paid Tottenham Hotspur around £10m for his services in the summer of 2023.
Winks made 109 appearances in all competitions for the Foxes and played a prominent part as they won the Championship title in his first campaign, but his standing at the King Power Stadium deteriorated sharply thereafter, as reported by BBC Sport.
One of the club's top earners, the former England international repeatedly found himself frozen out. Ruud van Nistelrooy left him on the sidelines towards the end of the 2024-25 top-flight campaign as the club slid towards the drop, and while relegation to the Championship brought a recall, Marti Cifuentes subsequently banished him from the squad once more.
Gary Rowett, Cifuentes' successor, brought Winks back into the side, but any prospect of repairing his relationship with the fanbase evaporated in April, when a furious exchange with a supporter while boarding the team coach after a loss at Portsmouth turned him into a lightning rod for frustration. He spent his last weeks in a Leicester shirt being booed by swathes of the home crowd every time the ball came his way.
Leicester's dismal season ended in a second successive relegation, condemning the 2016 Premier League champions to League One, and shifting one of their highest-paid players off the wage bill had become a clear priority as the club plots its rebuild.
Cagliari, who secured their Serie A status with a game to spare last term, believe Winks' composure and quality in possession will bring welcome control to their midfield ahead of the 2026-27 campaign, and the Englishman will hope the fresh start revives a career that had stalled badly on this side of the Channel.