If he's playing, he should play a weekend duel of 50 years with any of us + his race should be checked by a mentor who makes sure he doesn't take a slow start HP race or GR/UR as a PRT etc.
Give him the centre spawn so he can expand, he'll get the experience + it will be a good impediment for the border races to expand to the middle.

I don't know about spawning him in the middle, but the other options seem like a good idea. Especially the dueling, if he can show that he can play well against experienced players in a few duels before the game starts, then we should consider letting him play. We do need to grow our player community after all.