For their excellence at the highest levels of the sport, U.S. Soccer named U.S. Men’s National Team forward Landon Donovan as the 2009 Male Athlete of the Year and U.S. Women’s National Team goalkeeper Hope Solo as the 2009 Female Athlete of the Year. Under-17 MNT midfielder Luis Gil and WNT and U-23 WNT midfielder Tobin Heath won the Young Male and Young Female Awards, respectively.

The U.S. Soccer Athlete of the Year award is the highest honor awarded to soccer players in the United States.

More on Hope, Tobin, and Luis after the jump…

Solo, the winner of the 2009 Female Athlete of the Year award, played at a world class level for both club and country in 2009 as she solidified her status as one of the best female goalkeepers in the world. She was named MVP of the prestigious Algarve Cup in Portugal in March after a sparkling performance against Sweden in the championship game.

“It’s a huge honor but also a really nice surprise to be voted the female athlete of the year for U.S. Soccer,” said Solo. “I especially want to thank everyone for voting for a goalkeeper, as well as our goalkeeper coach Paul Rogers for helping me think about the position in a more sophisticated way, both technically and tactically.”

“Certainly, I also want to share any accolades with our defense, from the backs all the way up to the forwards, as well as Pia and our coaches who have put together a great team of people and players as we keep moving forward in a positive direction to the 2011 FIFA Women’s World Cup.”

Tobin Heath, long hailed as one of the brightest young players in the national team programs, now joins a distinguished list of players to have been named Young Female Athlete of the Year. She played with both the U.S. U-23 Women’s National Team and the full WNT in 2009, but her biggest triumph of 2009 was leading UNC to its 20th NCAA title, despite playing with nagging injuries.

The youngest member of the U.S. team to compete in the FIFA U-17 World Cup in Nigeria, Luis Gil is the also the youngest player to win the Young Male Athlete of the Year Award since Freddy Adu in 2003.

courtesy of ussoccer.com, 1, 2, 3, 4