The clue here was what is almost certainly the most popular emoji of the moment, ⚽ (thanks to the Euros).
This is emoji-fied as "The Soccer Ball" and described as a round, black and white ball, as used for the game of soccer. Obviously this is an American description. It first appeared as an emoji in 2009, which seems very late, though even more surprisingly ⚾ (the white with red stitching baseball emoji )only bounced on to the screen at the same time.
The current list of other sports ball emoji are 🥎 (a yellow softball), 🏀 (a red basketball), 🏈 (a brown American football ball), 🏉 (a tan rugby ball).
Lastly there is 🏐 - which people often mistakenly use as a football, it being white with brown lines across it in thatched cottage style sections, like the very early footballs used to be, however this is a volleyball.
As far as the card, this is also a tangled tale.
In our original British Trade Index part two "Shredded Wheat" is listed as "The Shredded Wheat Co., Ltd. Welwyn Garden City" - Breakfast Foods. Cards issued in the 1950s and 1960s", and has twenty-nine issues, fascinating ones they are too, how come I have not encountered them before? However they are earlier than our set, so on to British Trade Index part three, where it says "The Shredded Wheat Co., Ltd. Welwyn Garden City" - SIC in II. Became Nabisco Foods in the 1960s", and lists two advertisement cards from 1900-1910.
I then went back and looked in the original British Trade Index part II, only to find it says "Nabisco Foods Ltd - see under Shredded Wheat".
Anyway returning to British Trade Index part three, and finding "Nabisco Foods, Welwyn Garden City, Herts. - Successor to the Shredded Wheat Co., see sets SIC in II. Includes cards inscribed "Shredded Wheat", issued 1970s-80s, without Nabisco name. Also issued the "Tea Time" brand issue under set TAP-I in III" [which, by the way, is a set of 12 "British Soldiers Through the Ages"]. The listing under Nabisco is a lengthy one and is split into three parts, 1. cards inscribed "Nabisco", 2. brand issues inscribed "Shredded Wheat" and 3. Anonymous. Our set comes in the second section and is catalogued as :
Johan Cruyff Demonstrates Trapping and Shooting. 51 x 47. Picture changes as card is tilted. (4) ... NAB-17
1. Hitting a fast volley.
2. Bringing ball down with chest, and letting go a drive.
3. Displaying ball control.
4. Goal-scoring shot.
Now if that were not confusing enough, on to the British Trade Index part four, where, under Nabisco, it says this :
Nabisco Foods - NAB in III
NAB-17 (Johan Cruyff Demonstrates ...) These picture changing cards are of different sizes and are inscribed on backs as follows :
1. Trapping and Shooting (51 x 47)
2. The Volley (53 x 40)
Curiously, "Shredded Wheat" also still has a listing in part four, adding another early advertisement card to SIC-0.5.
By the time of our updated British Trade Index, issued in the year 2000, the entry for "Shredded Wheat" simply says "Shredded Wheat Co. Ltd. - see Nabisco Foods Ltd.". Gone too are the separations, everything is there and listed by set title in alphabetical order - except for our set, unless this is it ?
COACHED BY JOHAN CRUYFF. 121 x 76. Package issue. Oval pictures, red print on green background. No captions. Plain back, anonymous. Unnd. (4). See HN-3
The only part of this which seems to fit is "anonymous. Unnd. (4)". All the rest is different. So can anyone explain what happened to our set, please?