Monte Fresco, the smudger renowned for his sporting images

Monte Fresco, who has died aged 77, was a skilled, dedicated and innovative newspaper sports photographer. He was responsible for taking some of the most memorable sporting images during his 30 years working for the Daily Mirror.

By befriending footballers, boxers and tennis players he was able to persuade them to pose while doing daft things. He pictured one England footballer with a mop on his head and another sitting in a dustbin.

But he didn't rely on staged photographs. He took one of football's most iconic pictures, during a 1987 match between Wimbledon and Newcastle, by capturing the moment Vinnie Jones grabbed Paul Gascoigne by his testicles.

As a journalist friend quipped at the time: "It was the ultimate snatch picture." It has since featured on t-shirts and coffee cups, and it was even used in advertising campaigns.

Once asked what made a great football picture, he said, with due modesty: "Being in the right place with the right lens and… luck! I know that I have been very, very lucky."

But he also revealed how he made his luck: "I was always looking for an incident that had gone unnoticed, something off the ball, something to make the reader stop and take a second look and think 'I didn't see that!'"

It's fair to say that Monte helped to transform sports photography into a separate discipline from news photography.

Renowned for his sense of humour, Monte is said to have coined the terms "smudgers" for photographers and "blunts" ("blunt nibs") for writers.

What many people never realised was that Monte was almost blind in one eye. His friend, Bob Thomas, says he was only able to use his left eye for his camera work.

Monte, the son of a tailor, was born and raised in London's East End. He left school at 14, joined an agency, Topical Press, as a runner and graduated to dark room assistant before becoming a "junior photographer" on his 18th birthday.

After the closure of Topical Press he moved to International News Photos, and in 1958 its chief recommended the 22-year-old Monte to the Daily Mirror.

By that time his uncle, Monty Fresco, was building a reputation as a photographer with the Daily Mail. In subsequent years, there would be some confusion about whether they were one and the same person. In Fleet Street, of course, everyone knew the truth.

For Monte, who was to cover seven World Cups, the 1966 final was a special moment - and not just because England won - as his friend and colleague, Kent Gavin, revealed in a Mirror tribute.

He told how the Mirror were not allocated any photographers' passes in the draw for the final. "So," said Gavin, "Monte called Stan Flashman, the famous ticket spiv, and the Mirror paid for two tickets. We smuggled our cameras in and shot the match from the stands.

"Monte got some fantastic photos that day and we were both such proud Englishmen. We were in tears because we had won the world cup."

That victory was his favourite assignment, closely followed by his coverage of Muhammad Ali's 1971 title fight with Joe Frazier in Madison Square Garden.

Monte left the Mirror in 1988 to become a director of an agency, Bob Thomas Sports Photography (later merged with Popperfoto), but still covered major sporting events.

Thomas, in his Sports Journalists' Association tribute to Monte, called him "a remarkable man with an abundance of skill, not just with a camera, but in his way with people."

In a separate SJA tribute, Norman Giller recalls Monte being "a fiercely proud Jew, ready to fight for his faith" and also his "sharp sense of humour… Cockney, loud, in your face and always hilarious."

He is survived by his wife, Sheila, and four sons - Adam, Matthew, Jonathan and Harry. His cousin, Michael Fresco, is also a veteran newspaper photographer.

* Monte Fresco, photojournalist, born 14 February 1936; died 5 December 2013