MANY teenage boys dream of becoming professional footballers and earning huge salaries but Marlborough schoolboy Daniel Rean is to compete in a world championships at a game he perfected without leaving his bedroom.

Daniel, 16, who is a pupil at St John's School, shocked his parents when he told them he had become a star player of mobile phone game Clash Royale and was good enough to turn professional.

Now Daniel is to compete for part of a $1 million prize in the world finals of the Clash Royale League on December 1 in Tokyo.

He has just returned to the family home in Marlborough after he went with Team Queso to complete in the European Clash Royale League in Los Angeles and won.

His mum Juliet Rean, who is a teacher at Ramsbury Primary, went to watch him play in Los Angeles after his school allowed him to miss two months of sixth form so he could compete.

She said: "He was living a life most 16 year olds can only dream of, residing in a luxury house in Los Angeles and competing in front of thousands and thousands of viewers. I still have to pinch myself that my son is having this opportunity."

Daniel, who has a twin sister Charlotte, only took up the game last year. Mrs Rean said: "I didn't even know he was playing the game until he told me that he was wanted by a professional Spanish team. He had to wait until he was 16 to turn professional. It is all a bit different to his previous job working in Tesco."

She said that his friends at St John's were impressed by his success and he had been a big hit when she he went with her to meet children at Ramsbury Primary. She said: "They treated him like a celebrity and were very excited."

Clash Royale, which has elements from collectible card games, tower defence, and multiplayer battle arenas, made $1 billion in revenue in less than a year on the market.

Mrs Rean said: "Until he got into Clash Royale he was not really that bothered about computer games. He used to play the clarinet." Her son managed to combine training for Team Queso with his studying and gained excellent GCSE results. Mrs Rean said: "Staff at St John's have been very supportive and are happy for him to miss two months of Sixth Form because they recognise what an opportunity this is."

He will leave for Japan at the end of November.