Former Roma midfielder Edoardo Bove has revealed how a chance meeting at an airport with Watford sporting director Gianluca Nani led him to signing for the club – despite being in “advanced talks” with a number of Premier League sides.
The 23-year-old’s career has been on hold since December 2024 when he suffered a cardiac arrest in a Serie A match against Inter Milan, while on loan at Fiorentina.
He was fitted with an Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator (ICD) to treat his heart condition, but Italian rules state he cannot play in his homeland with the device.
Bove was looking for a new club outside of Italy – and he had interest from a number of teams in the Premier League and Bundesliga, including Liverpool, Everton, Brentford and Bournemouth.
But it was a surprise meeting – and the kind offer of a lift to a football match from Nani – that kickstarted the talks for him to eventually sign for Watford on a five-and-a-half-year deal.
In an exclusive interview with Sky Sports News, he said: “It’s a strange story, because I used to go to watch Fiorentina games last year and the last game of the table was Udinese vs Fiorentina. So I had to go and watch the game.
“I landed in Trieste, which is a city near Udine and I had to go to Udine with a taxi or an Uber. But the team manager of Fiorentina didn’t book me the taxi, so I was there at the airport and I didn’t know how to go to Udine from Trieste.
“I was on the phone, trying to see if there were taxis or Uber and someone touched me on the shoulder. I turned and it was the director Gianluca Nani and he was saying to me ‘I’m the Udinese and Watford director – do you want to come with me? I’ll bring you to Udine’.
Bove bumped into Gianluca Nani (right) at the airport
“First moment I was like, I don’t know him, I don’t know… but he was well-dressed, like a good director, so I trusted him. I went with him and we started talking about how I was feeling that period, if I was training, and after he said to me, ‘I promise you that we will work together’.
“And I was like, yeah, it’s something that you say usually like this, but it will not happen.
“Then we continued to chat, even with my agent and after we are here – I felt like it was a bit of destiny that day and I’m really happy on how it ended.
“I was talking with other clubs, even in an advanced way, but the thing is, now I have to come back and play games, feel the pitch again. And then for a football player, the environment is very important.
“What they are offering to me here, like with all the structure, with the staff, with the medical staff that knows everything about me – they are very kind and that’s very important for me.
“It’s been a lot of time that I’m not in a team and it has to be the perfect environment to start and go back on the pitch, so it’s for this reason my choice [to sign for Watford].”
Bove admitted there were times when he thought he would never play football again. He even signed up to an economics course at university to have something to fall back on. He is still studying for that degree now.
While he had his difficult moments, Bove revealed how family, friends and even Christian Eriksen – who had a similar incident on the pitch at Euro 2020 – were a huge support to getting him back to a good place again – physically and mentally.
Bove was in talks with Premier League clubs but ended up at Watford
He said: “We were speaking about doctors and stuff like that, because he had this kind of problem. Even this summer we chatted, but he is really a good guy with me, an incredible player, so I was so happy to hear something from him.
“The thing is, when this kind of event happens, you feel like a certain kind of connection, I don’t know why, it’s something that you cannot explain, but it’s like this, so I’m happy to be here and thankful to Christian for his advice.”
Bove is excited at the prospect of returning to football. Sky Sports News understands Watford’s medical team believe he is around four to six weeks away from making his debut for the club.
While his focus is on playing for Watford and getting back on the pitch, he still dreams of one day playing for Italy – despite that being unlikely with the current Italian rules.
Bove had been capped 14 times for Italy U21s before his cardiac arrest. And although he is a very proud Italian, he revealed he is also eligible to play for Germany through his family heritage.
He said: “For now, no [I can’t play for Italy], but in the future I don’t know. For now I cannot play because of the rules, but the thing is, for me it’s so important to play and to get back on that pitch.
“The national team is a very important thing for me and let’s see how it goes in the future. My grandma is German, my mum is half German, but let’s see, I don’t think about it. I feel very Italian.”
