Abstract: We propose an effective Lagrangian for the coupling of the neutral pion with gluons whose strength is determined by a low-energy theorem. We calculate the contribution of the gluonic components arising from this interaction to the pion transition form factor gamma*gamma* -> pi(0) using the instanton liquid model to describe the quantum chromodynamics vacuum. We find that this contribution is large and might explain the anomalous behavior of the form factor at large virtuality of one of the photons, a feature which was recently discovered by the BABAR Collaboration.