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Former Netherlands captain Giovanni van Bronckhorst says Indonesia must improve training programs for young talent if it wants to produce a top-flight football team, particularly improving Merah Putih.

“You need to build a good youth system in the association [PSSI], not the club,” he said during a recent visit to Jakarta for a friendly. “That’s how we started in Holland.

“You need to have a good training program from around 6 or 7 years old until they reach 17 to 18 years old,” he added.

It’s no surprise, then, that Van Bronckhorst, who claims Indonesian ancestry through his Maluku-born mother, has plans to establish a second headquarters in Indonesia for his youth-centered organization.

The Giovanni van Bronckhorst Foundation, based in Rotterdam, has been spearheading projects geared toward helping children and teenagers, including Birth Center Sophia and Van Bronckhorst Academy.

In particular, the football academy — based at his former team Feyenoord’s home ground, De Kuip Stadium — not only schools children on the fine art of field play, but also teaches basic language and math.

It also focuses on helping children with learning disabilities.

“Some kids may want to be footballers, but a majority of them won’t become one,” Van Bronckhorst said. “So providing them with good education and emphasizing health and fitness become more important.

“Those are the things we want to do — build a perfect environment where children can develop properly.

“While helping them with their education, we want to make sure every kid is disciplined. We also want to help them identify their goals in life,” Van Bronckhorst said.

The birth center, meanwhile, was established for mothers who could not afford hospital care.

Van Bronckhorst, who guided the Netherlands to a runner-up finish in last year’s World Cup, also said the development of the sport in Indonesia was severely hampered by the existence of rival leagues, the FIFA-sanctioned Super League and the breakaway Indonesian Premier League.

“You also need a strong league,” he said. “With the current situation where you have two leagues, that will block the development of Indonesian football. In the future, let’s hope there will only be one strong league.”

Such problems came to his attention, Van Bronckhorst said, when he visited Jakarta last week to play an exhibition at Gelora Bung Karno called “Starbol — Unite for Football Indonesia.”

Though the 36-year-old retired from professional football last year, he said he would not stop assisting sports officials both in the Netherlands and his “second home” in giving aspiring athletes a chance to learn.

“That’s why we made this trip and talked to lots of people,” he said. “We want to form partnerships with the local government, companies and hospitals, and find out what people need.

“It’s important to get good partners who want to help out because we can’t do it alone.”

Van Bronckhorst, a defensive midfielder, started his professional career at RKC Waalwijk in 1993. He later moved to Feyenoord, Rangers, Arsenal and Barcelona before ending his career at Feyenoord last year. He earned 106 caps and scored six goals for the Netherlands.