Gianluca Nani has confirmed he told Watford’s latest star that ‘one day we will go together’ mere months before it became a reality.The 63-year-old, who is the Group Technical Director for both Udinese and the Hornets, has signed some of European football’s greatest talents across his career, from Roberto Baggio to Pep Guardiola.Gianluca Nani confirmed a chance meeting at an airport led Watford to sign Edoardo BoveGettyHis latest coup was helping convince Edoardo Bove to join Championship Watford following his exit from Roma.The Italy Under-21 international hadn’t played a minute of football since suffering an on-pitch cardiac arrest in December 2024.While on loan at Fiorentina, Bove collapsed during a Serie A game against Inter Milan and was later fitted with a cardiac defibrillator.As a result, the 23-year-old midfielder was unable to continue his career in his homeland and was released from his contract at Roma.Nani, who was more than familiar with his compatriot due to his work at Udinese, then had a chance encounter with Bove last May, when the latter was Fiorentina’s guest of honour for their trip to Udine.Nine months later, Nani joined talkSPORT.com the morning after I Viola returned to the Bluenergy Stadium, where fittingly the conversation turned to Bove.“I met him by chance in Udine,” the sporting and technical director revealed. “He was coming here to watch the last game of last season.“That was Udinese-Fiorentina. He was following Fiorentina. And then he was without a car. I gave him a lift. “During the lift, I started to talk. I said, ‘One day we will go together.’ But I couldn’t expect it so quickly and so directly. “But that is not me. It’s always the club and all the staff of people that work in the club that do this kind of job.”Bove chose to restart his career at Watford over options across EuropeWrexham’s horror Watford recordBove has already made five appearances for Edward Still’s side, four of which have come in Watford’s last four matches.He is expected to be part of the squad, hoping to bounce back from their 3-1 loss to Stoke City on Saturday against Wrexham this week.Wrexham have won only one of their previous 10 Football League trips to Watford (D2 L7); a 2-1 victory 51 years ago in March 1975.Bove was billed as a ‘top, proven talent’ upon signing a five-and-a-half-year deal at Vicarage Road at the end of January.And Nani proved how excited Watford fans can be when he personally namechecked him while assessing the star names who he’d had a hand in signing or developing throughout his illustrious career.Watford’s slim playoff hopes will effectively be ended with a defeat to WrexhamGettyBove ‘one of many special players’Nani added to talkSPORT: “I’m proud of all my players. I’m not the one that I love more than another.“Then of course, when you talk about special players, you talk about Baggio and Guardiola. But there are many, many, many of them. “It’s the same when I talk about Udinese and Watford. It’s a group. It’s like [saying] you have two sons, which one do you like more? “That’s why Baggio and Guardiola are the most famous, they’re unbelievable. But many of them, Marek Hamšík [at Brescia] was 15 years old. A special player, many, many of them. “Now, also, we sign [for] Watford, Edoardo Bove, that is coming from a special situation. Here in Udine, we have [Nicolo] Zaniolo.Nani credited the work of owner Giampaolo Pozzo (C) in building the philosophy behind signing young starsGetty“That is a player with ability. He could play with a super top club.But also a young player like the last two. Like [Juan David] Arizala, [Branimir] Mlačić, that would be top talent. “In Watford, we have [Nestory] Irankunda, [Othmane] Maamma. So many, many, many players. It’s difficult for me to say. “I’m proud of my staff and people. First of all, because all together, that is a job that has to be done. Never will be one person who does this job.“But it’s always a staff of people. Always say that a good staff of people with the same mentality, same winning mentality, is much more than any great individual. “So that’s why, that is the way that we work in Udine. That is the way that we work also in the other club, in the group of Watford.“Trying all together to go in the same direction, following the same philosophy. Philosophy that was built by Mr Pozzo 40 years ago. And that is the way that we keep doing, and we hope we will do it.”