Former Indonesia national team player Sergio van Dijk is building the Neo Gen Football Academy football school in Bandung with former Persib goalkeeper Rizky Bagja.

BANDUNG, 5 July 2026 – The academy was set up to provide early-age football development focused on building character and technical ability, and to open a path to international tournaments.

Neogen was founded on the basis that we are former players who may have played in the Indonesian football league, especially myself personally. Then there is the figure of Sergio van Dijk.

Rizky Bagja

Sergio will be one of the founders with us, and there will also be a former national-team coach who will be our technical adviser.

Rizky Bagja

Rizky Bagja said the concern and sense of responsibility is for development rather than results alone. That is what sets Neo Gen apart from other academies: it recognises that winning is not the priority, but rather a systematic module of development suited to each age category.

In our view, our concern is development. Today people want to win instantly, whereas the context of development is how a child progresses from not being able to being able.

Rizky Bagja

This is what we want, to make a difference at Neogen: we must trust progress, and results for young ages will certainly follow.

Rizky Bagja

The academy founded by Sergio van Dijk and Rizky Bagja held a selection on Friday (3/7/2026) at the PPI Pusenif field in Bandung for the tournament in Singapore. Neo Gen Academy is holding staged selections from Saturday (4/7/2026) at the same field to take part in the U10 football tournament in Singapore called Singa Cup, in October-November.

Neo Gen Academy will compete against other ASEAN clubs. Rizky Bagja stressed that the target is not to chase the title but to gain competitive experience for the development stage.

The competition in Singapore is indeed an annual, regular event on an ASEAN scale; the Singapore event is called Singa Cup.

Rizky Bagja

The academy’s director and coaching staff draw on experienced figures, such as Regi Aditya, the coach who led PSBS Biak to the 2023-2024 Liga 2 title. Regi Aditya will be Academy Director, joined by coaches Ronald Innova and Dadan Sukmana, who also contributed at PSBS Biak, and Sigit Hermawan, who led Persib to the 2014 title.

Coach Regi Aditya is our academy director. He is a former Persibo Bojonegoro coach and the PSBS Biak coach who won promotion to Liga 1. Most recently he was assistant to Coach Rahmad Darmawan at Persipura.

Rizky Bagja

Source: Kompas.com (translated from Indonesian)

Article Link: https://bola.kompas.com/read/2026/07/05/13111998/proyek-sergio-van-dijk-dirikan-akademi-sepak-bola-di-indonesia