The Barcelona legend showed both sides of football as he tormented Guardado on the pitch but met his two-year-old son off it for an uplifting encounter.
Messi first pulled off an outrageous nutmeg on Real Betis midfielder Guardado and netted twice in a 5-0 win.
Then he showed an equally classy touch when the Mexico star came knocking on the Barca dressing-room, carrying his son Maximo.
The Argentina all-time great came out and Maximo’s face lit up straight away as he said: “Messi!”
The pair high-fived, exchanged words and posed for photos taken by Guardado.
All of it – at the La Ligas clаsh in January this year – was also captured by cameras following Guardado for Amazon’s new series, Six Dreams.
Guardado, 31, ended the meeting by embracing Messi in a “thank you” that spoke louder than words.
He said at the time: “I decided to find him because my son, Maximo, wаnted to meet him.
“Maximo adores football and he does not differentiate between Barcelona, Madrid, Cristiano or Messi.”
Guardado’s wife Sandra de la Vega has just posted the photos online.
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And perhaps the snaps will also cheer up Messi, who has just returned for pre-season training with champions Barcelona following his own and Argentina’s mediocre World Cup.
Guardado, meanwhile, at least has one thing over Messi when it comes to footballing achievements.
The ex-Valencia, Deportivo and Bayer Leverkusen ace has 150 caps – 22 more than Messi, despite being the same age.
