Jack Grealish cited David Moyes as the reason he made the decision to join Everton from Manchester City.
Grealish celebrated his home debut with two assists as Everton crowned their first match at the Hill Dickinson Stadium with a 2-0 win over Brighton in the Premier League.
It is the first time in three years Grealish has made two Premier League assists in the same game.
The England winger spent four seasons at City after making a then British transfer record £100m ($135m) move from boyhood club Aston Villa.
He saw his game time limited last season though, playing just 715 Premier League minutes and was left out of the Club World Cup squad.
Napoli and Everton emerged as the two favourites to sign the 29-year-old and after a phone call with Moyes, Grealish made the decision to join the Merseyside club.
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Speaking to Sky Sports, Grealish said: "I absolutely loved my time at Man City, I had a great four years there, won a lot of things.
"It just felt like it was time for a change and I have said it before, as soon as I spoke to the manager David Moyes on FaceTime, I knew this was the place I wanted to come.
"There were a lot of reasons I wanted to come here and today showed why."
Grealish struck up an immediate partnership with Iliman Ndiaye, assisting him after just 23 minutes.
In doing so, the Senegalese forward made history as the first scorer at the new stadium, following his record as the last scorer at Goodison Park.
Ndiaye made it clear he feels a good relationship is in the making between the pair that could lead to fruition throughout the season.
"I think it could be great, obviously Jack is an amazing player, we all know that, today he showed what he can do," he said.
"He assisted me for the first goal as well and the second, so I think it can be very good this season."
Grealish echoed the sentiments of his new teammate, after they succeeded at the first time of trying, having not even played together in training.
"The manager he has not played us once together in training, I said to Illy yesterday, is there any chance of the manager playing us together," added Grealish.
"This is our first time and hopefully there will be many more goals and assists for both of us."