Portsmouth enrols 23,000 students and is ranked among the world's best modern universities. Portsmouth is also the birthplace of author Charles Dickens and engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel. The Romans built Portus Adurni, a fort, at nearby Portchester in the late third century. The city's Old English name "Portesmuða" is derived from "port", meaning a haven, and "muða", the mouth of a large river or estuary. The "Anglo-Saxon Chronicle" has a warrior called Port and his two sons killing a noble Briton in Portsmouth in 501. Winston Churchill, in his "A History of the English-Speaking Peoples", says that Port was a pirate
Portsmouth F.C. in European football Portsmouth F.C. in European football Portsmouth F.C.'s record in Europe was in the 2008–09 UEFA Cup where they played Vitória Guimarães and Braga of Portugal, Italian team Milan and Heerenveen of the Netherlands. They qualified by winning the 2008 FA Cup final. Two years later, Portsmouth were the runners-up of the 2009–10 FA Cup to Champions League-qualified Chelsea. However, Portsmouth did not obtain a UEFA licence, meaning they could not qualify for Europe. Portsmouth had appealed to UEFA, the Premier League and the English FA, but the latter two would not allow late applications for the licence. As a result,