Jozy prepares to take on the world

Villarreal-bound Jozy Altidore will be one of the marquee names on this summer's U.S. Olympic team. Brad Schloss/Icon SMI Grant Wahl's Mailbag Grant Wahl will periodically answer questions from SI.com users in his mailbag. Name: Email: Hometown: Question: SEND

American soccer's $10 million man is about to begin his Great Spanish Adventure.

Jozy Altidore starts preseason training on Monday at Villarreal, the La Liga powerhouse that purchased the 18-year-old striker for a U.S.-record $10 million from the New York Red Bulls last month. And with a couple weeks to acclimatize before he's expected to join the U.S. Olympic team, Altidore is hoping to make a good first impression on his new outfit.

"I'm just excited, man," Altidore told me this week from Bradenton, Fla., where he's been training at the International Performance Institute. "I can't wait to have my first training session and see what it's like playing European soccer."

For all the advances in American soccer over the last 15 years, the U.S. hasn't come close to producing a superstar field player on the European club stage. And while Altidore represents the latest hope of U.S. fans to achieve such greatness, it's worthwhile to put some things in perspective.

Yes, he's a major prospect who scored 18 goals in 48 games for the Red Bulls (and four goals in five games at last year's Under-20 World Cup), but he wasn't a transcendent player in Major League Soccer.

Yes, he scored a beauty for the U.S. senior team in a high-profile friendly against Mexico last February, but he still has only three caps and may or may not be a regular for the U.S. in the next round of World Cup qualifying, which starts next month.

And yes, he could play a big role in the Olympics, but he had a muted performance in the Olympic qualification tournament, scoring no goals in four games (three of them starts).

The good thing is that Altidore appears to be aware of all that -- and equally realistic and optimistic about what awaits him in Spain next season. When he signed with Villarreal, Spanish media reports speculated that he would be loaned out to a smaller team in La Liga like Recreativo Huelva so that he could get playing time. And while that's still a possibility -- the choice is up to Manuel Pellegrini, Villarreal's Chilean coach -- it appears more likely now that Altidore will spend at least the first half of the season with Villarreal.

"If you work hard and do what's asked of you out of your position, then I think you can definitely get some minutes, but it won't be easy," Altidore says. "Hopefully I put in the work and the coach recognizes it and he puts me in the game. Any game."

Whether Villarreal is the ideal place for Altidore's development remains to be seen, but there's no doubt that he'll be surrounded by world-class talent every day in training. The Yellow Submarine is coming off its best finish ever in La Liga last season, taking second behind Real Madrid and earning an automatic Champions League berth. Its regulars include three members of Spain's Euro 2008 champion (Marcos Senna, Santi Cazorla and Joan Capdevila) and two World Cup winners (France's Robert Pirès and Brazil's Edmílson).

Pellegrini (who prefers a 4-4-2 formation) has at least three forwards above Altidore for now in the pecking order: Nihat Kahveci, the Turkish sniper who scored twice in Euro '08; Giuseppe Rossi, the New Jersey-born 21-year-old who has chosen to play for Italy (and is on the Azzurri's Olympic roster); and Guillermo Franco, the Argentine-born 31-year-old who has played internationally for Mexico.

That's some rare air for an 18-year-old like Altidore. Then again, it's not like he's being expected to produce results immediately or risk being labeled a bust. Villarreal has invested too much (that $10 million transfer fee) and signed Altidore for too long (a six-year contract) to make any instant judgments about his long-term future. What's more, Altidore shouldn't be under the kind of mega-pressure from the home fans that he would have faced at other top-of-the-table Spanish teams like Real Madrid or Barcelona.