on 29 january 2010, following a successful trial, aksalu signed a two-and-a-half-year contract with championship club sheffield united for a transfer fee of £180,000. kevin blackwell, sheffield united's manager at the time, claimed aksalu was the best goalkeeping triallist he had seen in a long time and had the potential to become estonia's number one. however, aksalu failed to impress new manager gary speed and was unable to break into the first team.